


The Dawn of a New Era

by Se3TheSun



Category: Mad Men
Genre: Drama, Multi, Post-Finale, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-09 19:11:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5551910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Se3TheSun/pseuds/Se3TheSun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>October 1970. As the spirit of the 60s wears off, the new decade is well underway. Major events have already changed the course of many of our characters lives this year, but many more events are yet to play out on the stage. </p>
<p>Post-finale work that starts immediately after Season 7 Episode 14 - Person to Person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Saw a lack of certain characters in other post-finale works so decided to try and amend that by including as many of the characters as possible and how they rebuild their lives after the finale. However, just like the show, focuses mostly on Don, with Peggy, Stan, and Pete as other majors.

** Chapter 1 **

** The End of an Era **

A cool breeze was in the air as Donald Draper, fresh from a meditation session out by the California cliffs, slowly walked back towards the lodgings where he had been staying at the retreat. Different feelings and emotions were swirling around in his head. For the past decade, he had spent more time than anyone he knew trying to accept himself, and find out who he really was. Sorrow seared through his body as he recognized that for all of this time that he had spent, for all the difficulties he had caused his various workplaces, friends, and colleagues, he had gone full circle and ended up where he started in 1960.

“I go to a spiritual retreat, my niece leaves me, I have no family who love me, my closest friend is worried for me, I cry on the shoulders of a man who I hardly know, and all I can think of is a fucking Coke advert,” Don thought angrily as he entered the lodge and climbed into his bed. The entire trip West felt like an utter waste, and Don felt like playing the blame game, just like he always did when something went wrong in his life. The spiritually lifted Don from less than an hour ago had disappeared, but his genius idea had not, and he did not enjoy this current situation in the slightest.

The first person he tried to blame for his failure to change was Stephanie. Speaking to himself, he quietly exclaimed in the room “A classic Draper family trait, to abandon your child and run away.” But after saying these words, all he could think of was Peggy, and immediately regretted the double standard he was giving her compared to Stephanie. Yet, he found it very difficult to stay annoyed when thinking about Peggy. She was the only one who really understood Don, and Don felt like he was the only one who could figure her out. At least, unlike Stephanie, Peggy was an ambitious working woman, who had made something out of her life. But Don couldn’t help attacking her in his thoughts at the moment. Being ambitious and caring about your work is great, but when your best friend is on the other side of the country and all you can talk about is coming back to McCann?

“Certainly not what I would be talking about if I was in her shoes.”

He had known, ever since she had been given what was effectively a promotion from secretary to copy back in the days of Sterling & Cooper that Peggy was aiming for the stars in her working life. Yet, Don did worry that she was so focused on her working life that she would never end up with a Moon to her Sun. Only last year, they had both confessed their deepest feelings and worries to each other. She was 30, nearly 31, and was still single, after multiple failed relationships, without a family of her own, and her own heavily Catholic mother was disappointed in her. Thinking about all of this, and how close their bond really was, Don realized that his apology, and his goodbye, to Peggy on the phone at this camp probably didn’t have the effect on her that he desired; it would only have made her even more worried about him and put even more on her already crowded mind. Not for the first time, Don had failed to appreciate just how close the bond between him and his former secretary was. But he was determined to make this the last time he did that.

Leaving the building, he walked past a crowded seminar room where a large number of people were shouting at each other. He looked in, and saw the man he had hugged earlier, Leonard bellowing at a middle aged woman, who had a terrified expression on her face. This was almost too much for Don to handle as he noticed the symmetry with his own life. Just like he had done so many times before, when he tried to be a kinder, different person to all the major people in his life, from Betty, to Sally, to Megan, to Peggy, he was the one who always messed it up.

But now, he knew he wasn’t the only one who had the same problem. Everyone did. “Everyone has the same problems, they just show them in different ways,” he exclaimed to himself as he walked towards the phone. He dialed Peggy’s work number again, hoping to comfort her about his previous call. The phone rang. There was no answer on the other side.

\----------

While trying to hold back tears, Peggy, for the first time in her life, had exclaimed her love for another man. Even with the many previous men that she had encountered in her life, including her boyfriend for multiple years, Abe, she had never before told a male that she loved him. In her office, they walked over to each other, and made out for what seemed like a very long time to both of them. Eventually, they stopped, looked at each other in the eyes for a few seconds, and started again. Peggy was getting a taste of Rizzo beard in her mouth, but she hadn’t a care in the world right now. The phone call to Don, which had ended just 5 minutes ago, seemed a million miles away, and all she could do right now was savor this intimate moment with the man she wanted in her life.

Even after that conversation with Stan, thoughts from multiple angles were still racing through her mind as they locked lips. She felt stupider than she had ever felt in her life before. For 5 years she had been with multiple men when the perfect one, who cared for and respected her, had been right in front of her the whole time! Memories were flooding through her mind faster than water that had just broken a levee. She remembered the time when in the Waldorf Hotel she had defiantly taken off her clothes one by one in front of Stan, proving to him that she was of stronger mind than she looked. Those phone calls between them, especially when she was at CGC. The kiss they had shared in the offices right after the companies merged. The jealousy in her eyes when she saw Stan with other women. The jealousy in Stan’s eyes when she told him what a great night she’d had with a total stranger. The deeply honest discussions they’d had with each other. The fact that he was one of a very select few group who she had admitted giving away her child to. She broke off the kiss, wanting to speak.

“Stan.”

“Oh man, not a serious conversation right now. I was having so much fun,” Stan said playfully.

“It’s not. I just can’t believe for all these years I didn’t understand our affections for each other.”

“Well, we’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for!” And they started making out again, this time even more passionately than before.

“Thinks he’s so funny,” thought Peggy, but she couldn’t get mad at him now. She was annoyed at herself for the lost time too.

The phone rang. Peggy broke off the kiss.

“I need to get this,” she said to a disappointed Stan, and tried to walk towards her desk, but some force was stopping her. She turned, and saw Stan’s hand clutching the back of her dress.

“Trust me, you don’t _need_ to do anything,” Stan responded seductively.

For what seemed like the millionth time to her, Peggy was faced with a choice of relationship or work. Every other time before, work had won this fight.

Work was knocked out in the first round this time around.

\----------

Don knew his work at the retreat was done. There was nothing else for him here. He had agreed to go along in an attempt to see if he could find peace and harmony, and he had succeeded on both fronts, if not in the way he had imagined it. Rather than finding actual “peace,” he had found peace in the way that he was not the only human being who felt ignored, unloved, and was flawed. It seemed like everyone in the world was. And because he had discovered that everyone was flawed, even though it can be expressed in different ways, he had found his harmony with the world, himself, and others.

As he left the retreat, with nothing but an envelope of nearly depleted money and his U.S Passport, he felt more satisfied with himself than he had done for a while. The angry feelings were fading away as he continued to accept that he was an advertising genius, and nothing could take that away from him. He was a man defined by his job and his skill at it.

Another bulb moment in his brain, just like the one he had in that meditation on the cliffs, had hit him.

With the realization that his working professional life was great, but his personal life was in great difficulty, he yet again felt at harmony. After so many near misses, he finally understood Peggy. “Our working lives define who we are and what we do, but only through a strong personal life can true happiness be found.” He played this phrase on repeat in his mind for a very long time. He had one of the two. All he had to do now was to rebuild the other. But thinking about this made him extremely worried. He might not have another chance to rebuild his personal life. Peggy hadn’t answered his call. He knew that he was the reason why his relationships had fallen apart, and even though only a few hours earlier he had admitted this all to Peggy, he was struggling to let go of his shame.

Right there, just as he was about to reach the first road nearest the retreat, he made the decision to go back to NYC and rebuild all his relationships with people he knew and loved. He would be still be the mysterious ad man Don Draper, with a great talent and commanding presence in the presentation rooms, but he would no longer be the man who treated his personal companions like dirt. No. It was time to reconcile with the people who he had let down. He made a list in his mind of who these people would be. And this time, rather than through person to person phone calls, it would be through personal conversation.

\----------

“Welcome aboard,” the Learjet employee said to Pete and Trudy as they walked onto the private plane.

Those two words hit Peter Campbell much harder than the humble employee could've ever thought they would. To the man who spoke them, they were a simple greeting to someone who would soon be working hard for the same employer as him. To Pete, they brought back old feelings, good and bad, but also hope for the future he’d always wanted. After making so many idiotic decisions in the past, he finally had the fresh start he wanted. For the first time in his life, he was leaving New York behind him, and felt privileged to have a loving family, unlike many others he was leaving behind in NYC. But there was just one memory he couldn’t get out of his head, no matter how hard he tried.

As he got into his seat, with his beautiful wife and their child, Tammy, next to him, his mind slipped back to that final conversation he’d had with Peggy. There were a lot more things he had wanted to say to her back then, but he’d been unable to put them into words. Now that he had thought of exactly what he wanted to say, he made the decision that the first person he would call when they reached Kansas would be her. With the pressure of work taken off him for a few days, he had been thinking about what he’d done to her. He remembered the awkwardness she exhibited around the children in the SCP offices, and when he saw her pushing Joan’s baby in a pushchair. She had been scarred from her pregnancy, and in that final face to face conversation, Pete chose not to mention this event, partially out of respect, and partially out of the impossibility of choosing what to say about it.

Despite the fact that she gave their baby away, he couldn’t stop himself from feeling proud of her. He felt like she had changed a lot more than he had since that fateful day on the couch. He thought of her incredible rise through the agency, from secretary, to copy, to copy chief at another firm, to copy chief at SCP, to copy at one of the biggest advertising agencies in the country. “Creative director by 1980, what was I thinking? This is Peggy Olson we’re talking about, 1975 at most. And all of this while having a huge black cloud looming over her head. What a woman,” he thought to himself. Turning to his left, he saw Tammy smiling right at him, and this made him feel more relaxed. He cleared his mind further by thinking of the phone call he would make to her, in which he would make, according to himself at least, the most honest apology he would ever say in his life.

The plane gathered speed and eventually lifted off.


	2. Free as a Bird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don continues on his journey, while Stan & Peggy enjoy some quality time together.

** Chapter 2 **

** Free as a Bird **

Stan and Peggy were sitting on the couch in Peggy’s office, arms around each other’s backs, pure silence around them, apart from the occasional footsteps down the hall. Both of them were still in disbelief at what had happened in the previous 20 minutes. Eventually, Stan broke the silence.

“Still got any rats in your apartment?”

Peggy laughed, and Stan smiled. “I’m afraid not, and you’ll have to try harder than that,” she joked, and moved her mouth very close to Stan's.

As they locked lips, Peggy noticed that there was something about the chemistry between her and Stan that was different than anything that had gone before. They could casually joke together without either of them getting angry or offended. That wasn’t what she had experienced with Abe. She beamed at Stan.

“Yeah well, after work, let’s go over to yours anyway. You’ve always wanted me to come over. Will it be worth my while?”

“Yes, and then some.” And for the second time, they laughed together. A relationship that had officially lasted 20 minutes appeared to have unofficially lasted for several years. To Stan, that meant that he could take things up a notch a little quicker than a usual relationship might do. After all, they were both in their 30’s and so would need to go quicker if Stan was to fulfil his dream of becoming a father. He still had underlying concerns that Peggy would find it very difficult to accept another pregnancy and motherhood, after her confession to him in the SCP offices. But he knew that he would use all the love and support he could possibly muster to ensure that this woman could get through anything in her life, at the office or in the home.

With the whole idea of office life coming up in his mind, Stan quickly jumped off the couch and onto his feet. “Listen, I’ve got some drawings to sign off on, and I know you love your work too. I’ll come see you in here at the end of the day.”

He picked her off the couch, gave her a cheeky kiss on the forehead, and then walked towards the door. Just before he opened it, he looked back towards her.

“I can’t believe I finally have you.”

“I can’t believe we left it this long,” she replied, with a hint of an apology in her voice.

Stan left the room. When his footsteps sounded fairly far away, she started weeping again. Not tears of sadness, or tears of joy, but rather, tears of regret that she had wasted 5 years of her life with the wrong men. Despite this, she still puckered up a small laugh between the tears, and, just like Stan, realised that they had effectively been partners for much longer than the past hour. And now the tears of regret had turned into tears of joy and contempt.

\----------

Don had been walking down the road for a good half an hour in the direction of Los Angeles, desperately trying to hitch a ride. If he was going to start his campaign of being a new man in the same job, he wanted to start it as soon as possible. He looked in the envelope to see how much money he had left, and if he could afford a flight. He still had a good amount left, more than enough for a coast to coast flight, but he got distracted by the passport in his envelope. He stared at the Great Seal of the United States on the front of the passport, and imagined what it was like to be a bald eagle, able to fly anywhere in the world at any time, without needing to rely on others or worry about money. The bird had the ultimate freedom that no human could obtain. For some reason that he didn’t understand at the time, his mind inclined him to open the passport and turn to the details page. When he did so, his eyes immediately focused on two lines.

Surname

Draper

Surname. Draper. Surname. Draper. These two words played out in his mind, but they no longer had the same effect that they would've done even a week ago. The anger he had felt earlier about being unable to find the true him at the retreat was cooling down. This was the real him. Donald Draper, advertising mastermind. He was no-one else. He couldn’t become someone else. Even though he had tried multiple times, becoming Dick Whitman again was not a possibility. It was not himself that was the cause of his sadness and depression; it was himself in the eyes of others, and his relationships with others. And he knew that he was the only one who could change this, and admitting this was just the beginning to finding satisfaction and peace of mind. He knew who he really was, but making others know who he was would be the difficult part. But he was willing to take a challenge on, as he had done so multiple times in his advertising career. But now, his advertising skills would be used to improve his personal relationships with others.

A car was coming down the round at a rapid speed, based on the rate at which Don’s ears heard the engine get louder, and on the side Don was on. When Don looked to his left to see the machine making the noise, he observed that it was a typical American muscle car, and as it approached, Don stuck out his hand to ask for a ride. To his delight, the driver started slowing down, and eventually stopped. The front window on the right-hand side of the car opened, and Don was surprised to see the face at the wheel.

A man with a weathered face, white hair almost dotted on his head, brown eyes, dry lips, and a large beard turned away from looking at the road ahead to Don. Don estimated him to be almost 60 years old, and certainly not the kind of person who he’d expect to be driving down this road in a car like this.

“You wanted a ride?” The driver said. He had a Midwestern accent, almost like the ex-army people back at “that” hotel.

“Sure, are you going to Los Angeles?” Don asked back in a way that made it seem like he didn’t care if the answer was yes or no.

“I’m not going into the city, but I can drop you off near the airport if you want. You on holiday?”

“Yes, I am,” Don said in that well known sighing voice that he usually saved for when he was replying to Peggy giving a poor idea for a copy again. “I really would appreciate that, I can pay you well.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, the driver said. I’ve got plenty of money. I’m a retired mechanic, used to work on hot rods and cars like this one, you know.”

Don had his suspicions that this man would be a manual worker, but not a mechanic. The feeling of disappointment brewed in his head. “I’ve gone and done it again. Judged someone before really knowing them. I’m terrible with people.”

“Are you ok?” The driver said, concerned due to the fact that Don had been staring at him for a good few seconds without speaking.

“Fine,” Don replied. “But I still want to pay you something for doing this. And you are accepting my payment whether you like it or not.”

“If you really want me to, I will,” the mechanic said, admitting defeat. “Come on, get in the car and we’ll get going.”

And Don stepped into the car, but not before staring at the bald eagle on the front of his passport one last time. “An eagle doesn’t have to rely on others,” he thought again. Just then, the mechanic put his foot on the gas pedal and they were off.

Minutes later, Don fell fast asleep. The mechanic, looking at him, chuckled, quietly said “What a guy,” and concentrated on the road ahead, but not without thinking about this curious character next to him.

\----------

Darkness had fallen upon New York City, and in a small office somewhere on Madison Avenue, Peggy Olson was hard at work on her typewriter. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up. Stan was there, smiling like a kid who had just been given a new Beatles record for Christmas. She smiled back, and Stan kissed her forehead.

“I did say I was gonna come pick you up. You finished with your copy, my ambitious little girl?”

The phrase “my ambitious little girl” made Peggy’s heart flutter in delight. Stan had proved he was in another league to the rest of the guys she had dated. He was supportive of her work, funny, caring, and appeared not to care that the woman in the relationship was the higher up and the higher paid of the two of them.

“Pretty much done. You can wait ten minutes, can’t you?”

“Awww come on Pegs, if I waited five years to get you, I can easily wait ten minutes. You don’t need to test me on this, you know?” And he kissed her on the forehead again.

She really hadn’t meant it to be a test, but the sheer fact that Stan had made a joke of it when many others she knew would’ve gotten annoyed made her extremely happy. Not being used to this, her brain nerves appeared to get mixed up and she made another decision she would never have made for any other man before Stan.

“You know what? I’m done. I can get back to work on this tomorrow; it’s only ten minutes extra anyway. And I’d much rather spend ten minutes with you now rather than later.”

Stan was very much taken aback by this. He was fully ready to wait those ten minutes, agonizing though it may have been, just so he could keep his love in a positive mood. Now, the tables had turned; and Peggy was the one willing to sacrifice her work for Stan.

“Are you sure? This isn’t like you at all,” he said, sounding slightly sceptical.

“And you, Stan Rizzo, aren’t like anyone else I know,” she replied. They both laughed, Peggy got out of her chair, put her hands around his neck, and kissed him, very confused with herself for making that decision to, for the second time in a day, put her personal life over work.

Not knowing if there were any “relationship between employees” rules at McCann, and certainly not wanting to risk finding out what they were, they left the office as if they had just spent the day working on a project together. It really didn’t matter in the end, as hardly anyone was in the building after dark. As the elevator stopped on the ground floor, and the doors opened up, they could both do nothing but just look at the large empty foyer in front of them.

“An empty canvas allows you to paint whatever you want on it, with no limitations but the size of the canvas itself,” Stan said as his eyes peered around the empty space.

“Whatever you say, Aristotle,” Peggy joked. And they walked out of the building and into the bustling Manhattan streets chuckling without a care in the world.

At the same time, after touching down in Kansas, Pete and Trudy opened the Learjet door, just as hopeful for the future.

At the same time, near Los Angeles Airport, Don opened the car door, said his thanks to the mechanic, kept his word and paid him, and walked away. Alone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for no Pete in this chapter, I promise he'll feature in the next one!


	3. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan & Peggy spend their first evening together as a couple, and a chance meeting gives Don an idea. Pete discovers that moving can change a life completely.

** Chapter 3 **

** Revelations **

Stan’s first reaction when he entered Peggy’s apartment was one of surprise and sorrow. Surprise as to where Peggy lived, in one of the rougher districts of the city in a fairly small apartment compared to his, and sorrow as to how a woman so talented and beautiful was still living somewhere like this. He made a mental note that he would get her out of this place as quickly as possible, adding to the many notes already in his mind about his future life and their relationship.

“Well, this is it. It’s not much, but I have a roof over my head and the place is warm and cosy,” Peggy said, also slightly embarrassed at have to show this place off to Stan.

“Everyone knows cosy is just another way of saying too small. But hey, as a copywriter, you know how to work with words, don’t you?” Stan replied sarcastically.

“When are you going to start your long delayed comedy career?” Peggy replied, with more seriousness in her voice than Stan. “When we start our long-delayed family and relationship,” Stan thought. And this thought, especially of family, stayed with him long after he had imagined it.

Private issues brought the conversation to a premature end.

“Can I use your bathroom?” Stan suddenly stated. I haven’t been all afternoon and I’m desperate.”

“I really needed to know the details Stan, but sure.”

Stan entered the bathroom in high spirits. If he knew what awaited him when he exited, he’d be in even higher spirits.

\----------

A long flight, even a private one, is normally very tiring for all involved, and so Pete couldn’t be happier when he opened the front door of his family’s new ground floor apartment that had been provided for them by Learjet until they could find a place of their own. While Learjet was a highly prestigious upmarket brand, neither Pete nor Trudy were expecting much from so called temporary accommodation, but to say they were impressed by what they walked into would be a massive understatement.

The apartment, even though the building it was situated in was fairly old, had been renovated and modernized not that long ago, and it showed. Everything seemed new in some way. The walls were a perfect light blue with not a single scratch or dent in them, the kitchen had all the latest brand new accessories, the bathroom had a shower that had only recently been installed, and the beds in the two bedrooms were fully premade and ready to be slept in, which was all Pete could ask for after the flight.

Both Pete and Trudy were so in awe at what they had walked into that they were lost for words, until Pete managed to put his emotions into a simple sentence.

“Welcome to our new life, Trudy and Tammy,” he said as if he was overjoyed to be saying it, which he was. He was feeling happier than he had been for a very long time.

“This was the best decision I’ve ever made, apart from marrying you,” Trudy replied, beaming at her husband.

“Come on, let’s make ourselves at home as a family. Busy day tomorrow.” Just saying the word family in a positive light was a change for Pete, and Trudy could see this clear as day. She felt that this time, it would be different.

\----------

Don sat in the departure lounge of Los Angeles Airport, reading a copy of The Wall Street Journal. He wasn’t one to invest in stocks, but he always enjoyed reading the financial news and markets to scout out various companies that he would like to work with or may have to work with in the future. He recalled the time when SCP had a chance at going public and could’ve been one of the companies in the paper, but that was in the past and he couldn’t do anything to change that. Looking down the stock price index, one company caught his eye:

Coca-Cola Company (KO) Open 78.75 Close 80.25

He imagined just how high he could get that stock price with his idea for an advert. $100 a share, $150, $500? He didn’t have a clue. All he knew was that he had come up with the greatest advertising idea he had had for many a year, but at the same time, understood that the idea was so abstract that it would be difficult to pitch to a company as big as Coca Cola which had a huge budget. He had to make the explanation of the advert as clear as possible, and he was struggling to think of just how he could possibly do that.

In an attempt to free his creative talent, he decided to take a walk around the airport. He was also slightly concerned about his flight, as a large number of flights had been delayed due to logistics difficulties and an unusually high number of pilot absences. Tempers were high among a large proportion of passengers in the airport, as you would expect when a flight is delayed for several hours.

As he walked into the shopping area, he couldn’t help but notice that outside one of the shops, a large group of people were laughing and talking to each other. To Don, the group was so large and had such a range of ages that it couldn’t just be a large family or a group of executives waiting for their flight. Intrigued to know more about this apparent meeting of strangers, Don chose to walk into the shop while attempting to observe this strange phenomenon along the way.

When he got closer to them, he noticed one common trend amongst almost every person in the rabble. They were all drinking or holding bottles of Coke. Don stopped dead in his tracks and froze on the spot. Surely this couldn’t be happening? He had gone for a walkabout to try and stop thinking about Coke, and yet, he had walked right back into it. Despite this apparent setback, he smiled.

“Is there anything else in the world that could bring a group of strangers together like a Coke?”

He could’ve jumped into the air and hugged every single member of that group if he wanted to. But he was far too euphoric to even consider doing that. After multiple hours of agonising about how he could possibly pitch the idea of people standing together and singing when at the same time they were also clutching bottles of Coke on a hilltop to executives, an explanation had just been handed to him on a plate.

Composing himself, he walked into the shop, bought a bottle of the beverage in question, a pen, and a napkin, and made his return to the departure lounge.

Sitting back down in the lounge, his thoughts focused back to a few hours ago; on the episode with the mechanic. It was true that they had started off on a good footing with each other and got along well, but to Don, they were two completely different people. Don, an advertising executive, and a retired mechanic driving a car that didn’t fit with his personality. Don’s mind then turned to the large group of strangers he had just seen, interacting with each other through the shared medium of a Coke bottle. He imagined, instead of offering the retired mechanic money for the ride, which he wasn’t that interested in accepting, what would his response have been if he’d offered the man a bottle of Coke instead? He would much rather have bought the man a Coke to show his gratitude than pay him money which wasn’t wanted. He wanted to buy everyone who he had talked to on the phone recently a Coke, all for different reasons. At that moment, he felt like he wanted to buy the whole world a Coke.

Another lightbulb moment had struck. With his new pen, he wrote on the napkin “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” Fully satisfied with his work, he sipped his drink, very ready to get on the plane to New York and continue his work as the advertising mogul.

\----------

Stan, very much relieved in his private region, got ready to leave the bathroom in Peggy’s apartment, thinking about what an excellent day he’d had. He would certainly class this as one of the best days of his life, without any doubt. But if he had any idea what was happening outside the door, he would’ve classed the day as the greatest of his life.

He opened the door, took one pace with both of his feet, and halted, utterly gobsmacked at what he saw, or at least, what he thought he saw. He rubbed his eyes just to make sure they weren’t playing tricks on him, but they weren’t.

Peggy Olson, looking straight at the bathroom door that he’d just walked through, was sitting there naked on the couch. Seeing his dumbfounded reaction, she spoke in her most seductive, sexy voice.

“Come on Stan, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Stan almost fainted there and then. He rubbed his eyes a second time. She was still there. He stood there, open-mouthed, staring at her body for what seemed like eternity to both of them. Eventually, words came out of his open mouth.

“Where and when on earth did this Peggy come from?” he whispered under bated breath, still not entirely sure if he was dreaming.

She made a slow ‘come here’ motion with her left index finger and looked him right in the eyes with a piercing gaze.

“I want you, Rizzo.”

On hearing those words, an instinct came over Stan that he would never be able to describe. It was an almost animalistic feeling, and it came over his whole body and penetrated into the deepest aspects of his mind. He started thinking about his current situation in ways he never would’ve done before. He was the hunter, and he had finally caught his prey after an arduous and sometimes painful chase. He realised that he deserved this. This was his reward. The reward for persevering when he had convinced himself to give up on her several times over the years. But he wasn’t going to dive into those negative places when she was right there, with her body on show, more vulnerable than ever before. The room was so quiet that they could hear each other breathing, and the tension between both of them was far too large to stay put in the small space that separated the two beings. If Stan didn’t make his move soon, the tension would become too great and burst like an overinflated balloon. Something had to give.

The animal instinct kicked in again, and this time physically. Even though the distance between Stan and the couch was no more than a few meters, he broke out into a sudden run. Seconds later, and without knowing exactly how he had got there, he was on top of her and his lips were connecting with hers. He slowly moved his fingers up and down her body, still in disbelief as to what was happening. Continuing to move his fingers ever closer to her breasts, he broke his lips off from hers and aggressively kissed her all over the neck area.

Judging by the adorable smile on her face and the beaming look in her eyes, he was certain she was enjoying this highly intimate sensation. Even so, he wished he could understand just what had made her strip fully naked when he was in the bathroom, and even more so the language she had used to seduce him when he returned.  It just didn’t seem like something the Peggy he had known for 5 years would do, but it had been a very unusual day for both of them, and that was an understatement.  Now that he had her physical body all to himself, an insight into her mental state was all he wanted.

\----------

Because Stan entering the bathroom meant that they were separated for the first time since he had come to pick her up from the office, Peggy had been given a chance to clear her senses and think straight for the first time since that phone conversation. She had struggled to complete any work that afternoon, as her head had been spinning in multiple directions since Stan had left her office trying to decode everything that had happened in that previous hour. At that point of the day, it still felt like a dream to her, and at any time she would wake up in her apartment at sunrise, ready for another day at McCann. But now, back in that very apartment, she knew that it was real. As soon as the bathroom door shut, she sat down on the couch and stared at the wall. Her brain was no longer in a state of utter confusion, but in a state of acceptance and hope for the future. It was time to open a new chapter in the life of Peggy Olson, and she wanted to start this one off with a little more excitement than previous ones. She reminded herself about other times she had started new chapters in her life, and even though there were many chapters in this novel, she could only play back one right now.

That night at the Waldorf. The first time she had spent a long time alone with Stan. While it was five years ago, it seemed like only yesterday she had risen to his challenge and actually stripped off in front of him, gaining his admiration. Five years later, for the first time she would be spending a long time alone with Stan, but as a couple. Why not try to cook up some of that Waldorf magic again?

And with that memory fresh in her mind, her hands moved towards the back zip of her dress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to put an ode to the Waldorf in this. The trio of episodes in the middle of Season 4 (Waldorf Stories, The Suitcase, The Summer Man) are easily the best three episodes without a break, although an honorable mention must go to the final 3 episodes of Season 5, where the season really revived itself.


	4. Mornings and Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don makes his return to NYC and is immediately faced with a dilemma that will decide his future. Pete & Trudy engage in a meaningful discussion that highlights their fresh outlook in their relationship. Peggy & Stan get ready for another day at McCann, while a private meeting at the upper echelons of the company places someone in a very awkward position.

** Chapter 4 **

** Mornings and Meetings **

A gloomy autumn morning was revealing itself to the residents of New York City. The sun was nowhere to be seen, a light drizzle was falling from the grey and characterless sky, and the temperature had dropped significantly from the previous day. Autumn was in full swing.

It was in these conditions that Donald Draper set his eyes on the urban metropolis for the first time since that day when he had walked out of the McCann conference room. He was, of course, seeing the city from a different angle than usual, being up in the air and therefore having a birds-eye view of the place he had called home for so many previous years. Even this fact combined with Peggy begging him over the phone to ‘come home’ to the East Coast couldn’t make this feel like a typical homecoming to him. He was entering the unknown in a familiar territory. He had no place to live, barely any possessions since Marie had emptied the flat, and was clueless as to what his first step should be when he touched down at JFK Airport. There were so many people he wanted to talk to that he was struggling to choose an opening move. He could go straight to the Francis home, to see Betty and the kids, but he had reason to believe that this was the wrong choice. They all had far too much on their plate anyway, and adding him into the mix would probably make things worse. He knew from his encounters with Henry that he was already a strong, respectable male figure in his children’s life, and had his trust in him, a state official, to be able to sort out personal matters to ensure that everyone would be OK when Betty left the world. However, he missed Sally immensely, and wondered what she would think about her father if she discovered that he hadn’t gone straight to see her after returning from his voyage west.

The skyscrapers were getting closer and closer. The plane was descending at a fairly slow rate, but still too fast for Don’s liking. His thoughts moved towards his other options, although he decided if he wasn’t going to see Betty and Sally, his only other choice was to visit Peggy and reassure her. After that phone conversation they’d had, she must have been worried stiff about him. No, scratch that, she _was_ worried stiff about him. He could tell that from recalling the tone in her voice, so panicky and distraught it sounded. But it was the tone of a true friend, one who was truly distressed about his well-being, one who knew him, one who cared. As the plane touched down on the runway, he went through the negatives of choosing the Peggy option. Firstly, he would have to return to McCann, and he didn’t want to do that for at least another week, so he could settle into New York life again without having Jim Hobart interrogating him about his disappearance. Secondly, she was probably so distracted by work that it would be better to see her in out of work hours. But that would be difficult considering he had no method of contacting her outside of work. He knew her work number, but not her home number, and he had never asked for her actual address. If he knew where she resided, he had a feeling deep down that the first thing he would’ve done when he got off that plane would've been to go straight there. As the plane stopped and he removed his seat belt, he was still debating on what to do. He wondered where Peggy was at that very moment in time. It was only just past daybreak, but he had a sneaking suspicion she would already be at that typewriter.

He was very wrong. Peggy had gone to sleep very late last night.

\----------

Peggy opened her eyes into an interesting sight for the start of the day. A large amount of male facial hair greeted her as she awoke from her slumber. She pictured the past 24 hours of her life in her head. So much had happened since she woke up alone in her apartment yesterday morning that it felt more like 24 years had passed since then. As she looked up and down Stan’s resting body, lying there motionless on the mattress next to her, she felt more satisfied with her life than she had been in a long while. But the euphoria from last afternoon and night had worn off, and her mind was migrating to thoughts about Don again. Where was he at this precise moment in time? Why did he sound so down when he had called her? What did he do after he ended the call? When would he return, if ever? Trying to send these questions to the back of her head, she got up, took one last look at Stan, smiled, and opened the bedroom door into the living room. Her dress, along with Stan’s shirt and pants were still on the floor next to the sofa. She recalled the events of last night, and this helped her temporarily remove all thoughts of Don.

Despite the poor and depressing weather, she drew the curtains and opened the windows, ready for another day of work. She heard a plane flying overhead, but took no real notice of it, as she had heard that sound multiple times a day ever since she had moved into this place. Instead, she was far more focused on how she could possibly catch up on all the work she had neglected yesterday. Those two conversations with Don and Stan had taken their toll on her productivity, but for opposite reasons. Staring out into the street below, a cool breeze gently touched her face and she closed her eyes again, imagining the wind to be Stan’s cold fingers. All her worries started to drift away with the breeze, but she still wanted to get into work as soon as possible in order to catch up. Feeling calm, composed, and ready to take on anything that was thrown at her today, she moved away from the window and returned to the bedroom. Deciding to skip taking a shower, she picked out a dress from her closet, put on a pair of shoes, and went over to the mirror to apply her makeup. She took no shortcuts when performing this task, wanting to look good for her guy, another thing she hadn’t considered important when she was dating previous partners. Also, her legendary entrance at McCann combined with her defiance when she was being considered for removal from an account had made a big impression on the other men at the agency. Rumors had spread amongst the hundreds of employees that this was a woman who you didn’t mess with, and to her, she actually liked it that way. It allowed her to get on with her work without being needlessly being distracted by anyone (although it appeared Stan would be changing that), it allowed her to wear pretty much what she wanted within the boundaries of office rules without having to worry about what others thought, and her confrontational attitude had, although she didn’t know about it yet, made her a very small object of discussion at the executive level, and for positive reasons. While he was very busy, and was disappointed at how the merger hadn’t gone very smoothly at all, with his prize catch slipping away, Jim Hobart himself had apparently earmarked her name down as one to watch. Truth be told, he was so excited by her potential that he wanted someone from SCP to keep a close eye on her, and to report to him on her progress.

Unfortunately for Jim, and even more so for Peggy, his first choice for this task was AWOL. His second choice was Ted, and he had arranged a meeting with him for today to discuss this.

Peggy, knowing absolutely none of this, wrote a short note for Stan, informing him she was already at the offices and unlocked the front door.

\----------

“Your room number is 187. Thank you for choosing to stay at the Roosevelt Hotel.”

Don thanked the woman at the front desk, and walked towards the elevator. Between getting off the plane and hailing a taxi, he had come up with a plan of action to avoid McCann but still talk to Peggy in private. He still had a large amount of money, so what difference did booking in at the Roosevelt make to him? He remembered the last time he was here, when the cracks had begun to show in his marriage to Betty, but all thinking about his ex-wife did was convince him he had made the wrong decision. He was choosing, of his own free will, to see his colleague instead of his family. He reassured himself by thinking of his three most recent phone conversations. They were all heart-breaking for him in different ways, but only Peggy’s words had made him feel like he was really wanted back. She was the one who had convinced him to return. She was the one who deserved to know the news that he was back in New York first. He trusted her more than anyone else. She was effectively family. Many times had she bailed him out of tricky situations, and many times had they discussed personal issues face to face. He wanted another one of those sessions with her.

The elevator stopped, Don walked to his room, unlocked the door, entered, and threw himself onto the bed. It had been a long flight, and he had struggled to sleep on it. He would call Peggy’s work number as soon as he woke up, and invite her to his room.

\----------

Learjet had given Pete and his family three whole days to themselves to settle into Wichita, and there were many things Pete wanted to do in those three days. However, Trudy wanted to get the dull administration errands done first, such as finding a dentist, a doctor, and generally exploring the city. Pete didn’t underestimate the importance of these errands, but was desperate to find the time to make a long phone call to Peggy as soon as possible. As he was preparing to exit the front door of their temporary apartment for the first time with Trudy, he brought up the proposition to her.

“Once we’ve done all the administration, do you mind if I come back here without going shopping? I have an important phone call I need to make.”

He felt proud of his honesty here. He could’ve lied right there and said he wanted to spend time with Tammy for an easy way out, but he was willing to have arguments with Trudy if it meant being as truthful as possible.

“Who do you need to call?”

The test just got a little bit harder.

“Peggy. She was a good friend to me at work and I never got the chance to say goodbye to her in the way I wanted to.”

Trudy raised a smile at him; happy that her husband was choosing to stay in touch with old workmates.

“I just want to keep in contact with her, she’s destined for great things and I want to make sure I know when they happen.”

Years ago this would've been a barefaced lie. Now, it was the complete truth. He genuinely wanted to remain friends with her in the hope that his predictions for her would come true. He wanted nothing more than for her to succeed in fulfilling those predictions.

With the way Pete said it, Trudy was convinced he was telling the truth. He had passed the test with flying colors. This being the first time Pete was living away from New York, she was also agitated about him suffering from homesickness, and thought that letting him speak to friends in the city would help him adjust.

“It’s great you want to keep in contact with old colleagues Pete, and I think it will do you a lot of good to do that. I know you left a lot of friends behind in that city.”

Although he didn’t show it, Pete was jubilant at Trudy’s reaction. He was expecting her to be suspicious, but they knew were starting again with a relationship built on trust, and both of them were showing it.

“Thank you so much. And you’re right; I need to keep in contact with as many of my New York friends as possible.”

Reminding himself of all his old buddies in advertising gave him another reason he wanted to phone Peggy as soon as he could. He knew Don had gone missing from the company, and he was starting to join the score of people who were anxious about him. He suspected that out of all the people Don was likely to call, Peggy was on the top of the list. If anyone was to know his current whereabouts, she would be the one.

He walked out into Wichita for the first time with Trudy by his side, but for that whole morning, all he could focus on was that future phone call.

\----------

Peggy had just got into her office with some strong coffee when the phone rang.  Annoyed at being distracted so early on in the day, she answered.

“Peggy Olson, who is this?” She said snappily.

“It’s me.” Stan’s voice came through the speaker, and Peggy instantly booted out the feeling of annoyance within her. “I’m coming into work now, thanks for the note.”

“I wanted to come in fairly early to finish that work I left incomplete last night.”

“Understandable. I’ll be there soon. I love you.”

“I love you more.” And she put the phone down.

“Amazing how such a short conversation can mean so much,” she spoke softly to herself as her fingers moved back over the typewriter keys.

Yet that wasn’t to be the shortest or the most meaningful phone conversation she’d have that day.

The rest of her morning went off without a hitch, with very few events to distract her from work. Stan came in to her office when he arrived at McCann to make arrangements for lunch and gave her a little kiss on the forehead, which was to become a common part of their daily routine, but apart from that, she was entirely focused on her job and had a highly productive morning session. As she left to meet Stan, she commented to her secretary that an afternoon just like that morning was her dream for the day.

Sadly, most dreams never become a reality.

\----------

Ted Chaough was in high spirits as he looked around Jim Hobart’s office. Never one to be late for a meeting (completely the opposite of Don, according to his experiences), he had arrived with plenty of time to kill before Jim would turn up. He wondered what the subject of the meeting would be about, but hoped, due to what he saw as his strong and steady performance as a creative director since the merger, that he would be receiving praise and perhaps even a pay rise. In contrast, he felt that Jim wouldn’t request a one to one meeting with him just to confirm a pay rise and give him some support. He was trying to think of what he would say if asked for an update on Don's status when the door opened and Jim walked in, earlier than Ted expected.

Ted turned around to look at Jim, and gave him a confident smile to try and hide the reality that he was dreading having to answer questions about Don.

“Morning Jim.”

“And a good morning to you Ted.”

Unable to wait any longer to find out why he was in this room; Ted attempted to move the conversation on as quickly as possible.

“Shall we cut to the chase then? I know you’re a busy man, and I’ve not got an empty schedule after this meeting myself.”

“Ted, you are very much correct in that assumption. I am indeed a busy man, and that’s one of the reasons why I have an important task that I want you to fulfill.”

“Well, if it’s important enough to have a private meeting in your office, I am honored you have chosen me for the job.”

“You got lucky. If it wasn’t for Don’s disappearance he’d be the one in this meeting and not you.”

Ted felt hurt by this remark, and spoke his next line much more aggressively than his usual laid back style.

“I’m sorry to remind you, but Don is nowhere to be seen, and I don’t think he’ll be coming back for a while, so he isn’t a part of this discussion. Back to business, what do you want me to do?”

“Easy Ted, I wasn’t comparing you to him. You both have different strengths and his experience with ex-SCP employees compared to you rendered him my first choice for the task at hand.”

“I get that Jim, but I’m telling you that even though I spent much less time under the command of Roger Sterling, I know the employees we brought over and who actually turn up to work extremely well.”

He chuckled at his own joke, but Jim looked unimpressed. From what Jim knew about Don, he was almost certain that he would return. This prolonged absence was just one of those traits that made him the most mysterious man in the industry. Ignoring the joke, he went on.

“That’s good to hear, as I need you to keep a close eye on one. Did you work closely with Peggy Olson?”

“I’ve worked with her very closely alright,” Ted muttered under his breath.

“Sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t catch that?”

“I said I worked with her very often at SCP.”

“Excellent. You’ve said exactly what I wanted to hear. She’s made quite an entrance at this agency and from the little I’ve heard about her it appears we have a major talent on our hands. As you’ve worked with her before, I assume you already knew of this talent?”

Ted didn’t like where this was going one bit, although he didn’t show his doubt physically. He simply smiled at Jim, nodded his head, and waited for him to continue talking.

“In fact, early reports of her quality of work have been so outstanding that I want to ensure she stays on track. And this is where you come in. I want you to check up on her work whenever you can, and report to me on her progress, what accounts she’s on, what she’s doing on those accounts, that kind of stuff.”

Ted continued to put on the fake smile, but on the inside, his various emotions were churning up a combination of anger, disappointment, sadness, and helplessness. After such a positive start to his new job, the last thing he wanted in his life right now was an encounter with Peggy, and he guessed that she had similar feelings to him in terms of crossing paths again so soon. Still smiling, he spoke in the most confident tone of voice he was able to muster at the time.

“While I fully respect and agree with your view that she is an outstanding copywriter, and I completely understand why you’d want a more senior figure to report on her progress, I don’t think I’m the right person for that kind of job. Furthermore, like you just said, she’s had such a bright start here at McCann that surely the correct course to take right now should be to leave her be and let her get on with work, without any distractions?”

He felt very satisfied with this response, like a lawyer who had just given his client the defense of a lifetime. He felt that he had presented a logical argument against making him Peggy’s mentor, but a voice was telling him that the real reason for that speech was anything but logical. His only desire was to get out of this by any means necessary.

“All very good points, Ted, but it’s my opinion that she’d benefit from a more senior voice, and especially someone who she knows checking up on her, making sure she stays on the right path. It won’t involve disrupting her work in any way.”

Time for Plan B.

“Jim. I can see where you’re coming from on this, and I don’t think I’m going to be able to change your mind on the issue. But I really think you should wait and see if Don comes back before thrusting me straight into this. He’s worked with her for a lot longer than I have, and he knows her work style much better than I do. If you want to what I’d do if I were in your shoes, I’d wait a week for Don to get back. You’ll get a better result waiting for Don than if you put me on the job right away. I know her better than you do.”

He didn’t want to have to resort to mere praying that Don would return within the next week, but buying some time was better than resigning to defeat. And, judging by the fretful look on Jim’s face after he made this case, it seemed to him that his words were making the man at least reconsider his view.

“Well, it is true that you probably know better than me on what to do on matters concerning Peggy. And if you really think she’d do better with Don checking up on her, then that is a very humble thing to say. Tell you what, let’s take up your idea and wait a week to see if Don finally does return. If he does, I’ll ask him to do it instead. Is that OK with you?”

“That would be great, Jim. Thank you.”

“And thank you for honestly expressing yourself and objecting to my original plan. I respect that. You may leave.”

In a complete U-turn from less than 20 minutes ago, Ted silently hoped for the return of Donald Draper as he returned to his desk.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ted's ending was also pretty awful (we last see him smiling when Don walks out of the meeting) even though he wasn't that much of a major character so I had to bring him back.


	5. A Change of Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy is kept very busy for the day.

** Chapter 5 **

** A Change of Plans **

Peggy returned to her office after lunch in a joyful mood. The depressing weather that she had woken up to had undergone a transformation, with the rain stopping and the sun finally revealing itself from beyond the clouds. She had just eaten a hearty meal with her boyfriend during which they had revealed some of their favorite memories to each other. Stan mentioned how the highlight of his day when she was at CGC and he was still at SCDP were their late night phone calls, and how looking forward to them kept him going through the long days in that dreary white workplace. Peggy stated how she appreciated his bluntness with her when he told her she had a “great ass”, and this made Stan nearly choke on his potatoes in amusement. She quickly apologized for this in the “classic Peggy style” to quote Stan’s words, and they laughed it off like old friends.

She had just gotten started on typing up some new Butler taglines when the phone rang again. Not expecting a call at this time, she picked it up; curious to hear who it was on the other end of the line.

“Peggy Olson, who is this?”

“It’s me. I’m in Room 187 of the Roosevelt Hotel. Meet me there tonight. Come alone.”

Before she could reply, the caller had put the phone down and abruptly ended the call.

Time stood still for a minute. Peggy, still holding the phone to her ears, stared at the wall in front of her as if she was hypnotized by the dreary monotone color scheme. The chatter in the hallway outside her office seemed like radio static in the background; her mind was tuned to one specific wavelength and everything outside that frequency didn’t even exist. Even Stan, for the first time since yesterday, was pushed out of her thoughts by the bulldozer that was Donald Draper. He had actually returned.

“I only called because I…realized I never said goodbye to you.” This line played over and over again in Peggy’s head, and every time it repeated she became a little bit more amazed at what she had just heard on the phone in the here and now. This line was, in her view, the moment she concluded that Don wouldn’t be coming back. He had made up his mind to stay in California, and she was helpless to do anything about it. If it wasn’t for Stan reassuring her and looking at the situation in a more logical and less emotional way, using previous evidence of Don’s excursions west, she would probably be on a plane to, or in California right now to look for him. And, at least from her point of view, for a very good reason too. Yes, Stan was correct – he had indeed returned, but Peggy suspected that if he had heard the entire conversation and the style of Don’s voice, his opinion would've been the same as hers. It was just impossible to describe to Stan exactly why this time felt different, but after thinking it through, she was relieved that he didn’t hear the full call – he may never have admitted his love to her if he had.

Peggy felt her heartbeat in the stillness of the office. It was fairly slow, which surprised her considering what she had just been through, but listening to it beat repeatedly was irritating, and she asked herself why, if she rarely paid attention to her heart beating, she was concentrating on it so hard. Then it hit her.

There was no doubt, at least she thought there wasn’t, that she loved Stan and wanted to remain and be with him every minute of a day. But she also had a love for Don, in a completely different way. She certainly wouldn’t want to spend 24 hours a day with him. But he was a mentor, a friend, and most of all, the only man who came to visit her in the hospital. He truly cared for her in a way that no other person did, and despite her many grievances with him over the years, he had always encouraged her to aim high and reach for the stars, getting annoyed with her only when he thought she hadn’t lived up to her potential. While she had to try to slap some sense into him in their last major phone conversation by telling him he was lying after Don stated the long list of his sins, she knew that down at the bottom of a very deep pit, there was a kind and generous man in him that had yet to be unlocked. And she mourned, knowing that she was the one who owed Don a lot more than he owed her. Though Don had made her cry before multiple times, such as on that night when they bonded with each other while everyone else was watching the Ali fight, this was all forgivable when she considered the difficulties she knew that Don had been through in his life.  She made a resolution to make it up to him by accepting his invitation.

\----------

As you might expect, Peggy didn’t get a lot of work done for another afternoon in a row. Along with her, to be frank, sheer excitement at seeing her best friend again, she was also experiencing difficulty in how to break the news to Stan. She didn’t really want him to come along with her, especially as Don had told her to come alone and the topic of discussion was certain to be a very deep and dark one. Fortunately, Stan had made no plans with her that night, but she still didn’t want to lie to him this early on in their relationship, particularly when she knew that Stan was the best partner she’d ever had. She was biting her nails, pondering about how to tell Stan, when the phone rang for a second time. Again, she picked it up.

“Peggy Olson, who is this?”

“It’s me.”

Ted’s voice came through the speaker. He was speaking very quickly, as if almost embarrassed at having to make this call. He continued to speak at pace, not stopping for breath at any point.

“Do you have any idea where Don is or when he’s coming back? This is very important Peggy, I had a meeting with Jim Hobart on the subject and I told him you’d be the one from SCP who he’d keep in contact with.”

Ted was lying about the subject of the meeting, of course. He desperately didn’t want Peggy to know that they might have to work with each other again within a week.

Peggy evened the score by lying back.

“I’m really sorry Ted, but I haven’t had any contact with him since he left. And I want him to come back too.” She said that final sentence as if it was hopeless to expect him to return.

“Well, always a good idea to try, even if you don’t get what you want. Thanks Peggy.”

And Ted hung up.

Peggy’s intention was to keep Don’s return to New York a secret at this juncture, and so chose not to tell Ted that he was only a few miles away, in a hotel room. However, Ted’s call worried her. It sounded like Don was in big trouble with senior management, the way Ted had used the phrase “very important” like that. Peggy also didn’t want Don to have more on his plate than he already had, and she made the decision there and then that she would warn Don about the content of this phone call in the evening.

\----------

Pete genuinely didn't know Peggy’s desk number at McCann, so after he returned from his first venture into Wichita with Trudy, he called the front desk and asked to be put through to Peggy in copy.

He was put on hold, and made to sit for what seemed like hours to him, so badly did he want to talk to Peggy. He was also irritated at how cold the city was compared to New York, as he still hadn’t taken his coat off which he had worn in the morning. As the apartment was very well heated, he was starting to get extremely hot, which added to his irritation. The coat rack wasn’t that far away, but he knew, as all of us do, that as soon as he left the phone to hang up his coat Peggy would answer and when she received no reply from the other side, hang up.

Meanwhile, in warmer New York City, Peggy was drinking her traditional afternoon milky coffee when the phone started ringing again. Despite the fact that she didn’t assume she would be receiving another call for a while, hoping to hear Don again, she picked the phone up.

“Peggy Olson, who is this?”

“Listen, this is Marie from front desk at McCann, a person by the name of Pete Campbell would like to be put through so he can talk to you, shall I do that?”

Her goodbye in person to Pete had been enjoyable and fulfilling, so she wasn’t sure what he would want to talk about. Still, she was intrigued.

“Yes. Please put him through.”

“Hey Peggy, how are you doing?” Peggy noticed that Pete was speaking in a much happier voice than she had heard for a long time, and she responded with a similarly positive vibe in hers.

“I’m doing great Pete. Everyone here at McCann from the SCP crew misses you, but I’m glad you called! What can I do for you?”

“Peggy.” Peggy bit her lip as Pete’s voice became a lot more concerning. “I called you because there was something I needed to tell you that I couldn’t put into words when we were face to face together the other day.”

Peggy dreaded what was coming, but didn’t want to hang up. “Go ahead.”

“I just wished to say this. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I did to you. It was a horrendous ordeal I put you through and I want to tell you that I will forever be in your debt. You are an inspirational woman and I really hope that one day I can make it all up to you somehow. I know we both desired to move on from it, but I can’t with this guilt still attacking me constantly, so I have so say this. I would like you to know that I’ll always be here for you to call if anything’s ever getting you down or you just want to talk. Wichita is great, and the whole family are settling in well. But I still think of you and how well you’ve done. I’m very proud of you. You’re going to make director by 1975, not 1980 like I foolishly said in our last meeting. And I want you to keep in touch with me as you keep making your incredible strides in your life. I want to be here if ever you need a hand with anything, you got that?”

She was bowled over by this incredible show of generosity from Pete. He really had changed since he had realized how much his loving family meant to him.

“Peter Campbell, that’s not true. You’ve got this all the wrong way around. I am immensely proud of what you’ve done. You’ve found peace, an affectionate family, a great new job, you have it all! But thank you anyway for your kindhearted offer.”

She then changed her voice, like Pete had just done, into a much more serious one.

“Do you have a moment, Pete? I want to tell you about a big development, but you must promise not to tell anyone else.”

“Fire away, I’m all ears.”

“Well, yesterday Don called me from California, and today he called from the Roosevelt in New York. He wants me to meet him in his room there.”

She didn’t hear a response down the speaker for a while. Pete must have been as shocked as she was when she heard Don’s voice yesterday.

“That’s great to hear, Peggy. I had a feeling that out of all the people he’d call, he would call you if he needed someone to lean on. And if you want my advice, I’d say go meet him and talk to him. He’s done a lot more for you than you can imagine.”

“I know that,” Peggy said, even though she hadn’t known that until earlier today. “I’m just not sure if he wants to return to work or not!”

“He will want to. He’s Donald Draper, the greatest advertising executive on Madison Avenue. He can’t quit being that.”

As with Stan, Peggy felt that if Pete had heard him yesterday, he wouldn’t be so assertive that Don would come back to his job.

“I know Pete, but I’m still not that sure about him. I’m 100% going to see him no matter what.”

“You really should. You and Don always worked so well together. You were always his favorite, you know? Even if he didn’t show it very well.”

Peggy blushed at this, but chose this change of topic to say one last thing to Pete.

“Aww Pete, you’re so nice. By the way, I’ve got another big change I want to tell you about.”

“Please go on.”

“Well, and please don’t tell anyone else about this either as we’re keeping it a secret until we decide to go public, but I’m going out with Stan Rizzo. We kinda slipped into it, but it’s going very well so far.”

Pete was delighted for Peggy. He didn’t know Stan very well as they rarely met, but he was keen to support Peggy in her quest for a loving relationship, so many men she had been disappointed and let down by.

“Peggy, I am absolutely overjoyed to hear that. You deserve a chance to have true love and a family, and I hope Stan can give both to you. “

“Thank you for those words, Pete, and I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on everything happening back here with my life and Don. It was great to hear from you. Anyway, I have to go now. Work doesn’t do itself, you know!”

In Wichita, Pete’s mood was uplifted as he heard that final sentence. Peggy still had her work ethic and would, without a shadow of doubt, achieve her goals.

“Nice to see Peggy Olson hasn’t changed with me gone, still working as hard as ever. Please never change. I’ll try to come and visit sometime. Goodbye.”

Pete hung up, and just like that Peggy’s fourth and final phone call with men she knew very well came to an end.

\----------

Stan walked out of the art department looking very pleased with himself. He had successfully navigated and put together a complicated storyboard for an Avon television ad, and feeling highly satisfied; he was ready for a quiet evening with the girlfriend, free from the shackles of work until the morning. Gracefully walking into the copy department, he reached the door that had “Peggy Olson” on the front of it, and turned the handle.  Peggy was at her desk, smoking a cigarette while sorting out what appeared to Stan to be a lot of paperwork. She looked extremely stressed and from the troubled look on her face, Stan calculated that there was a problem she was very on edge about. Wanting to cheer her up, Stan tried to make a tongue-in-cheek joke of the situation at hand.

“That’s a lot of paperwork you’re sorting out. It’s good you’re getting practice in for when we have to fill out our joint tax return together.”

But the workload was not what Peggy was stressed about. She looked up from her desk and gave Stan a stern look.

“Stan, this paperwork isn’t what’s bothering me. It’s an issue entirely unrelated that you wouldn’t know about.” Her choice of words, combined with her snappy way of speaking them made Stan suspect that there was something she didn’t want to tell him about.

“Well, if you need to talk to someone about it, you always know I’m here to support you. You always told me what was on your mind before. Come, we can go grab a bite to eat and head to my apartment this time, where you know you can tell me anything.”

“This is different Stan. Very different.”

“Please Peggy; you don’t have to hide anything from me. You know I love you no matter what.”

Stan forged a small, cute smile, and Peggy looked up at it and responded with one of her own. While she was skeptical about what she was going to say, she hoped Stan stayed true to his word and understood her dilemma.

“I don’t know how to say this Stan, but…I got another phone call from Don today. He’s in a room in the Roosevelt Hotel and wants me to meet him there alone. I agreed, and I really don’t want to let him down and cancel last minute.”

After hearing this, along with taking into consideration how apprehensive she had sounded when Don had called her from California yesterday, Stan got the message that he wouldn’t win a battle against Peggy’s wish to see Don again. While he always thought they had a good friendship with each other, he questioned whether he had actually underestimated the closeness of this friendship. He continued to smile at her in as if to say he got what was going on, and then spoke.

“I must say that I was certainly expecting him to return, but I can’t say that I predicted he would be back this soon. He’s like that. OK, I know how much he means to you, Peggy, and you’ll likely be engaging in some very sincere conversation that I shouldn’t be a part of. But I’d like to see him too. I missed him.”

He wasn’t saying this just so he could be with her that night. While he hadn’t shown it in the slightest to the outside world, he too was getting concerned about the lack of Don in the workplace. Sure, he was completing all his work to a standard that he thought was extremely high, but the whole McCann office felt like it had a huge void in it that could never be filled without the presence of Don. He was also eager to talk to Don personally, which he hadn't done that often. Plus, he thought Don would appreciate them as a couple, if his theory about their close friendship was true.

Peggy had always known in the back of her mind that it would come to this for the whole afternoon. As previous experiences had taught her to always have a backup plan, she had formulated one in her head, and told Stan her compromise.

“Tell you what. We’ll grab dinner together and head to the Roosevelt. I’ll book you into a room near Don’s, which is number 187. Then, if our conversation strays in that general direction of my personal life, I’ll be totally honest and tell him we’ve started dating and that you wanted him to come back too and you’re currently waiting in a room just down the hotel hallway. You have to believe me on this, Stan. I know he’d want what is best for both of us. I reckon he’d be really happy for us too. Someone else I’ve already talked to today is.”

Stan wasn’t too cheerful that Peggy was apparently telling people about their relationship, and his facial expression morphed from one of interest into one of concern. Seeing this change, Peggy quickly continued.

“Oh Stan, it was just Pete calling me. He was interested to see how I was doing. He thinks people are gonna brag that they ever worked with me. There’s a lot more to him than you know, and I want to keep in contact with him. He’s taken the chance of a fresh start with his family and seized it with both hands. I have a huge amount of respect for the man.”

“Well, I’m not sure you should've told him yet.” To Peggy, this sounded like he was telling her off.

“What’s the harm in it? He doesn’t work here anymore, he doesn’t keep in contact with many others here, and he promised not to tell anyone else. I want to tell close friends I’m dating you because I love you. And Don and I have had so many truthful conversations with each other over the years that I feel I have a duty to tell him.”

“I never realized you two were such good friends.”

“I didn’t expect you to know. We don’t show it at all at work with the number of arguments we have.”

“That’s what got me confused; you always ended up in heated debate with each other about work.”

“I think he just has really high expectations from his employees. I must admit, he’s very much had an effect on me in that department.”

“Knowing you, he really has!” And they laughed very loudly. Both of them needed that.

“So that’s OK with you Stan? If you don’t like my plan, say you don’t.”

“Peggy, you need to stop doubting yourself, I love the plan! I get to go on a date AND hopefully end up alone in a swanky hotel room with you.” Stan loved flirting like this, as it reminded him of the night at the Waldorf.

“Don’t push your luck, Rizzo.” Peggy pretended she didn’t find them so amusing, but inside, she secretly admired his crude jokes.

“I’m not pushing my luck; I’m just saying what’s on my mind. And currently, that’s me and you in a hotel room.”

“Good to know. Now that we’re agreed on what we’re doing tonight, let’s go and dine out first. I feel like having some Italian.”

“And I feel like having some Olson later.”

“You’re pushing me to my limit now, you know that?”

Stan simply chuckled and said “I don’t believe that for a second.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IF ANYONE SAW THE MISTAKE I MADE BEFORE I EDITED YOU DIDN'T SEE NOTHING OK
> 
> As I continue to write this, one of the things I'm really glad I'm noticing is how much Weiner changed Pete over the last season or two of the show. Even come Season 4 and 5, while he had calmed down a little, he was still an extremely arrogant person who was easy to dislike. But right before the final episode aired I wanted Pete to have a good ending more than almost any other character, and I'm still not sure why that is. 
> 
> Surprisingly, when I checked, Peggy only just has more lines in the whole show than Pete, and at the end of Season 6, Pete is a fair pace ahead of her when it comes to total lines, until Peggy overtakes him at the end of Season 7 Part 1 and stays there. I found that very interesting considering a lot of Mad Men fans obviously see Peggy as the 2nd character of the show. Just a cool finding.


	6. The Middle-Aged Man and the Secretary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don & Peggy reunite.

** Chapter 6 **

** The Middle-Aged Man and the Secretary **

One of the aspects of New York City life Peggy couldn’t get her head around was the popularity of the yellow taxis. To her, they were overpriced and uncomfortable, but no-one else seemed to complain, and Stan was included in this latter group.

“Do we have to get a cab? I’d much rather walk it, I need some exercise after that long day,” Peggy moaned to Stan.

“In the rain and wind? Are you mad?” Stan replied, as if he already knew the answer to that second question.

“It’s only a light drizzle, and I’m not bothered by the wind. Don’t tell me that Stan Rizzo, the bearded art guy at McCann Erickson, is scared by some water falling from the sky.”

“I’m not. I just like convenience in my life, you know that,” he said, sounding like his masculinity was at stake.

“Well to me, those pricey cabs aren’t all they’re made up to be.”

“Well to me, seeing you naked isn’t all it’s made up to be. Just kidding.” Stan added that last remark after Peggy snarled at him, but she was only doing it to try and get her way, which worked.

“Fine, we’ll walk it. After all, I’ve just figured out that walking means I get to spend more of my time with you and less of my money, it’s a win win for me!”

“And that is a win win for me too. Come on.” Tightening their grip on each other’s hands, they strolled through downtown Manhattan, looking like a couple proud to be going on a date together, although this somewhat worried Peggy. What if a fellow employee spotted them together? Seeing the awkwardness on her face, Stan made his opinion known.

“Peggy. We’re out of work now. The chances of us seeing an employee are slim, and if they do see us together, so what? I value you much more than I value my job.”

“I just don’t think we should be holding hands. And I value you over everything too, you can be sure of that.”

“It’ll be OK. Besides, your actions so far at McCann will probably scare most of the non-executives out of saying anything if they see us.”

“And if an executive sees us?”

“I’ll tell them I love Margaret Olson right in their face, and accept my fate.”

“That’s a very noble thing to say. You’re the best Stan, and, as usual, you’re right. I worry far too much.”

After about 20 minutes of walking in the chilly and windy evening, they arrived at the Italian restaurant, thankfully not bumping into anyone they knew from work. As they set foot in the building, they felt like they had just entered a sauna. The heat and smell from the kitchen was carrying over into the dining area, and the scent of fresh spaghetti stimulated their appetite.

“Let’s sit down quick, I’m starving,” Stan proclaimed. The aroma had reminded him that he hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch, so much work on Avon had he completed that day.

And so they sat at a table, ordered two of the typical Italian-American dish of spaghetti and meatballs and enjoyed their first official date together. While Stan wanted to do the trick where two people start eating from the opposite ends of one piece of spaghetti and move towards each other, eventually touching lips, Peggy wasn’t so confident in showing public displays of affection yet. As Stan paid and left the restaurant to return to the cold streets, this was the topic being debated between them.

“I know we should’ve started earlier but we’ve only been going out for a little more than a day!” Peggy made her case fairly aggressively, but she hadn’t drunk a lot at the meal, only a small glass of wine, as she didn’t want to meet Don while even lightly drunk; it would be disrespectful to him in her view.

“I’m not mad at you. But I still want to do it someday.”

“I bet you’ve done that with loads of girls before tonight,” Peggy said, sounding ever so slightly jealous of Stan.

“Seriously, I haven’t. You overestimate my ability with women.”

“You haven’t done badly with me so far.”

“You are a far cry from all the others I’ve dated,” Stan spoke into her ear. Peggy giggled like a schoolgirl at this remark, and said back “I could say the same for you.”

“That’s very sweet. Next stop, the Roosevelt, am I right?”

“Indeed you are.”

The wind had gotten much fiercer since they were last outside, and the rain had evolved from a drizzle into a full on downpour. After another minute or so of walking, Stan had had enough with walking around New York City for the day.

“Jesus Christ, Peggy, can we please get a cab this time? The Roosevelt is a pretty long way away, and this wind is messing your beautiful hair up.”

Peggy didn’t have a counter to this remark, as it was correct. Walking for so long was beginning to bother her too.

“For once, I agree with you. This rain isn’t much fun either. Let’s take a cab.”

Stan hailed the first cab he saw, they got in, and within minutes were just outside the front door to the Roosevelt Hotel.

“Who’s paying for my room again?” Stan queried as they walked up to the front door.

“With any luck, Don. Don’t worry about that though, I can afford it.”

“I can too. Unlike SCP, McCann can actually afford to pay their art department a good salary.”

Peggy laughed. She remembered all those financial difficulties at the new firm after Sterling & Cooper, although this made her think of how the news that Ken and herself had effectively saved the company by signing a desperately needed account was overshadowed by the announcement that Don was “doing a Roger” and marrying his secretary. That was the most disappointed she’d ever been in Don. She recalled Joan telling her that Don was just as shallow as the rest of the men in the business, although she didn’t believe that. To her, Don was just in a bewildering phrase of his life, like she was when she was sleeping with Duck. God, Duck Phillips. What on earth was she thinking? Out of all the men she’d had sexual encounters with, he was the one she regretted the most. It wasn’t even born out of frustration, it just happened for literally no describable reason whatsoever apart from confusion.

But this was the present, and she was with a man who she genuinely had feelings for and who she didn’t have to be super serious around. And she loved where her career was going. She was just extremely anxious about seeing Don again.

Entering the Roosevelt was a new experience for Stan. While Peggy had been in some upmarket hotels on business trips, such as the one she visited just after she had just started at CGC, for Stan, just stepping into a hotel like this was a first. His eyes rotated around the front room, in awe at how much effort was put into keeping the place looking luxurious.

“Can you really afford this, Peggy?” He said, now noticeably nervous that she had underestimated the cost of a room at this place.

“I thought you wanted to end up in a swanky hotel room alone with me? Changed your mind? Trust me; you don’t know the other side of Don. I’m certain he’ll pay for it if he has to.”

Stan didn’t look so sure about this, but kept his mouth quiet this time. It was a fact that Peggy did know Don better than anyone else he spoke to.

The room was cheaper than Stan expected, leading to a “I told you so” moment from Peggy as they entered the elevator, which was a lot more glamorous than the ones that took you between floors at McCann. Peggy had booked Room 194 with a double bed, just 7 rooms down from Don’s current position in 187.

“I’m glad we got a room like that. Not too far away from Don and on the same floor, but not too close to make it embarrassing either,” she reasoned to Stan.

“I’m still surprised at the price. We should stay here more often.” Stan said this as if he wasn’t just making a suggestion, but a demand as well.

“You don’t know the high quality hotel market like I do.  I used to be a big fish in a small pond at CGC, you know? Went on trips to meet with clients and everything.” She tried very hard not to make this sound like she was bragging to him, but Stan wasn’t impressed.

“And you’re still acting like a big fish in the Atlantic Ocean. But I have no doubts you’ll be a shark soon, what with your work ethic.”

“That’s kind of you to say.”

As Peggy concluded her sentence, the elevator stopped. They had reached the correct floor.

The two of them left the elevator and ventured into the hallway. Peggy stopped to whisper into Stan’s ear.

“Let’s keep this very quiet, I don’t want Don to know you’re here yet. I’d like to surprise him with the news. No need to walk quietly or anything; let’s just not speak from here on.”

So they walked down the narrow hallway in complete silence to each other. Only the soles of Peggy’s shoes could be heard, and even then only by those with a sharp ear. Eventually, on their left, a door with the number “194” on the front was towering over them. Peggy unlocked the door.

Stan had to use all his mental will and strength to avoid the sounds of delight emanating in his brain from exiting through his mouth. The hotel room was immaculate, clean as a brand new whistle, with a pure white duvet and four large white pillows making up the double bed positioned right in the center of it. Positioned in front of the bed, on a tall mahogany chest of drawers, a large television, much larger than any Stan had ever watched his favorite programs on, was ready to be used by weary travelers needing some entertainment. At the far end, a perfectly clear glass window offered an incredible view of Manhattan at night, with thousands of lights visible, some close, some barely able to be spotted by the naked eye. He had never seen anything like it in his life.

Peggy, sensing Stan’s sense of awe through his body language, rapidly shut the door and ran to the opposite side of the room near the window. She beckoned Stan over, and when he had snapped out of his trance, he obeyed, still with his mouth wide open.

“Is…this…really happening? Are we seriously spending a whole night in this?” Of course, he knew the answer already, but he was still flabbergasted by the sheer beauty of the room.

“Oh, we are, and you are going to enjoy it. But first, there are other things I need to attend to.”

It was getting quite late, and Peggy didn’t want to keep Don waiting for a minute longer. She wanted to get this conversation rolling just as much as he did; the tension was killing her.

“You might want to turn the television on. I could be a very long time in there.”

Due to the fact that they had gone straight from work to dinner to the Roosevelt, Stan didn’t have much on him apart from money and his art bag. Peggy had her handbag, but she only had one book in there: a generic chick-lit that she didn’t think Stan would appreciate. Therefore, she was relieved that Stan would have some entertainment to revel in while she was with Don.

“You don’t want to know how just thinking of you in my head can entertain me,” Stan joked.

“You sicken me.” Peggy sounded cross, but she meant it in a more “that’s not a very appropriate joke” kind of way, and Stan had already gotten used to that.

“I’ll disgust you even more tonight if you’re lucky.”

“Well, for the first time in my life, I hope I’m unlucky.”

“In all seriousness, I hope it goes well. I love you.” Stan admitted.

“I must confess I don’t know what I’m going to say, but I’m excited to see him again. See you later.”

“Goodbye for now, Peggy.” And the door to Room 194 opened and shut again.

Seconds later, Peggy’s eyes were glued to the numbers 187 on the front of Don’s door. Having formulated what she was going to say to him on the way down from Room 194, she knocked, not too loudly, but not quietly either. A gruffly voice behind the door answered the knock.

“Who is it?”

“Someone who cares about you.”

Peggy heard nothing for a few moments. All of a sudden, loud footsteps coming ever closer resonated from inside. The sound of a door handle being turned reached her ears. The door began to move inwards, and picked up momentum until a tall, handsome middle-aged man appeared in the space where the door had been.

Peggy was the first to break the inevitable silence that followed when their eyes made contact.

“You’re home now, Don.”

“You saved me, Peggy,” Don said in the most sincere voice Peggy had ever heard him speak in. And she had heard him speak a lot. Choosing her words carefully, she made the decision that honesty was the best course of action right now.

“I was worried sick about you, you didn’t sound well on the phone at all.”

“Because I wasn’t well. I’m not sure if I’m OK now, to be frank. Do come in.”

Peggy accepted this proposition, overjoyed to be talking to the man who had guided her through so many challenges over the past decade. Shutting the door behind her, she asked the question she had been burning to know the answer to.

“May I just ask where you went? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, mind.”

Don looked at her as if he was a doctor checking up on a patient. He looked up to her face, then right the way down to her legs, then up again. Finally, looking her straight in the eyes, he spoke.

“I went on a journey that changed my life. It’s a very long tale.”

Peggy could sense that Don didn’t want to mention every little event that had taken place since his departure from McCann, and avoided interrogating him further about the trip itself.

“What did you discover then?”

“I discovered myself. I discovered that I can’t change who I am, and it doesn’t matter how hard I try to change, it’s not possible. I discovered that everyone else has the same problems I do. I discovered that people truly care about me. I discovered anguishes I never knew I had and mistakes I never knew I made, one of which is why I wanted to see you.”

Peggy was curious to know more, but she thought she had the gist of what Don was getting at. Don continued on.

“For a supposed friend and colleague of yours, I haven’t been either of them.”

“That’s not true.”

“But it is Peggy, it is. I’ve been terrible to you. I got annoyed at you far too easily in the workplace, despite the fact that you did frustrate me multiple times. I’ve been a poor role model for you when I know you looked up to me. I know I made you cry more than once, and I’m ashamed of that. And I’m here to make it all up to you.”

“You don’t need to apologize Don. I could say the same. I was obnoxious and irritating at certain points, especially on the Heinz work, and I’ve made more mistakes than I can count in my lifetime. It’s not your fault, Don. I messed up too. We all do.”

“And that’s what I learnt on my journey. But usually, you only see highlights of other people’s lives.”

“Now that is true.”

“I revealed too much to too many people. But I don’t regret revealing anything to you. I trust you more than anyone else. If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have come back.”

Don talking about revealing personal secrets placed Stan into Peggy’s thoughts. But she didn’t think now was the time to shift the subject so far away from the current one.

“I’m so glad you did though. Because I trust you too.”

Don then went for the change of subject, surprisingly to Peggy.

“Listen Peggy. There’s one more reason why I called you here.”

“I’m listening, Don.”

“So I’m back in New York. I’m home. But I don’t actually have a home. I sold my apartment and gave away nearly all of my possessions. All I have is a load of cash and a passport. I don’t even know if I have a job.”

With Don bringing up his current employment status, Peggy thought it best to tell him about Ted questioning her for information earlier that day. He was about to open his mouth to continue when she interrupted.

“Don, there’s something I need to tell you about McCann.” Don’s facial expression changed into one of intense interest, but also with a side order of fear. At least, that’s how Peggy interpreted it.

“Don’t worry, you haven’t been fired. I think. Earlier today I had a phone call from Ted. He had just gotten out of a meeting with Jim Hobart, and he asked me if I knew where you were.”

“Well, what did you say?” Wordlessly, Don prayed that Peggy had done the right thing.

“I lied to him. I told him that I didn’t know where you were. I wanted you to have some space considering you’ve only just returned. But it sounded like Jim really wanted to know where you were.”

Don breathed a sigh of relief, and flashed back in his mind to almost a decade ago, when Peggy had got him out of having to explain a very awkward car accident.

“Thank you Peggy. Thank you so much for covering my back again.”

“It’s the least I could do.”

“You made the right choice. I need some time to get used to New York again and do some other errands. I need to see the kids and get a stable place of residence before I go back.”

“If you need any help finding a place or getting an opinion on one you’re looking at, I’m right here.”

“That’s a generous offer. But getting an apartment doesn’t really bother me, well, not yet. I’m more concerned about my kids. I want to spend some time with them.”

“What are you so concerned about?”

Judging by the shift in mood on Don’s face after she asked that question, which appeared to have increased the portion of fear, Peggy felt like this was a hole she shouldn’t be digging into.

“Peggy…I made three phone calls while I was out in the West to three very important people in my life. The final one was to you. The first one was to Sally, and what I heard made me call Betty.”

“What’s happened to them?”

“Sally told me Betty has cancer. She only has a few months to live.”

Peggy looked like she had just witnessed someone getting shot right in front of her.

“I don’t know what to say Don…I can’t…I feel so bad for you and your children. I… hope they’ll be OK. Obviously I didn’t know her too well, but, I’m still shocked. It must be awful for kids to know their mother won’t be here in a year. Please tell me they’ll be OK, Don, please.”

“They will. Betty’s husband is a good man who will make sure they have stability when she leaves this place. I just really want to be a bigger part of their lives. I’ve been a poor father and I want, no, I’m going to change that. And I won’t accept failure this time.”

“You deserve to be in their lives. You’re a kindhearted man, Don, no matter what you think you are. Just because your own father was a let-down it doesn’t mean you have to be, and I have faith in you. I think you’ve failed to appreciate how much they meant to you recently, but you’ve managed to discover that nurturing side again.”

“I’m gonna go and visit them tomorrow. They’re not expecting me so I thought I’d go over.”

“That’s a great idea!”

Don mentioning tomorrow made him realize an error he’d made. He didn’t have any work to go to tomorrow, while Peggy did. And it was getting very late.

“Listen, I’ve just noticed the time. And unlike me, you're required to be somewhere tomorrow. You should get home.”

Now was the moment that she would have to bite the bullet and tell Don about Stan.

“Don, I don’t need to go home. I’ve booked myself into the hotel for the night.”

Don was baffled at this behavior from the normally frugal Peggy. “You booked in for a night at the Roosevelt Hotel just so you could see me?”

“Actually Don, big events have been going on in my life too. The only person I’ve told about said events has been Pete, so it’s still something I want to keep private.”

“You can tell me whatever you want and not a soul will know.”

“So you won’t tell anyone?”

“Whatever you say stays in these four walls surrounding us, and doesn’t get out. Until and unless you want it to.”

“I have a new boyfriend.”

Don groaned. “Not another one, Peggy?”

Peggy laughed, because she couldn’t wait for Don to know who it was and see how he reacted to the news.

“He’s called Stan. Stan Rizzo. You might know him,” she said, with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

As she expected, Don’s reaction was worth more than a thousand words, and was also a lot funnier than Peggy had ever imagined. First it seemed like he had just seen some sort of weird animal hybrid for the first time, and was for a moment the most confused human being on the planet, then he suddenly burst into laughter and hugged Peggy much tighter than Stan ever had.

“Stan. Rizzo. Stan Rizzo the bearded art man? Well, I can’t say I expected it, but congratulations.”

“I didn’t expect it either. But when he told me that he loved me, it all sort of clicked into place in my head that we were meant to be together.”

“Well Peggy, I really hope this one works out for you. When did this happen?”

“Officially, just over a day ago. Unofficially, it seems, 5 years.”

Don was over the moon for Peggy and had no other wish in the world than to see his former secretary happy with her new partner. “Is he here?”

“He sure is. Shall I go and get him?”

“No,” Don said forcefully. “We’ll go down to him. I think it’ll work better that way.”

Don, feeling more relaxed than he had been for a long time, opened the door and held it for Peggy. He couldn’t wait to get over to Stan’s room, and had to stop himself from running down the hallway as a slight problem came up in his head just as he was about to set feet in motion.  He didn’t know what the room number was.

“What room is he in, secretary?”

“194, Mr Draper.”

Don and Peggy glanced at each other one more time before setting their feet in motion; both feeling like the emotional bond between them had been rejuvenated after a period of neglect. Everything was wonderful, for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peggy's apparent frugality to me, especially towards the end of the series, is very interesting to look at deeper. She signs a contract at the end of Season 5 for $19,000 a year ($130k+ in today's money), probably gets similar amounts when CGC merges and at McCann, but never moves out of that small apartment, and she doesn't really do expensive meals (well, the men pay for them). Of course, she may just be waiting for a good reason to move out:)


	7. New Developments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don sees something he doesn't have, and never really had before.

** Chapter 7 **

** New Developments **

Pete Campbell lay wide awake in bed, staring at the ceiling, his wife fast asleep by his side. The day seemed a distant memory, yet sundown had occurred only 5 hours ago. So many new developments had materialized in the past 24 hours that he was struggling to keep track of everything; along with getting a real place to live sorted out, changing doctors, dentists, and generally getting used to a new city was all a first for Pete, and when he added this to a call with Peggy that he was extremely content with, it was difficult for him to juggle it all.

Focusing on the call to Peggy, he couldn’t do anything but feel proud of himself for the way he’d spoken to her. To him, he had finally made amends with the girl who had foolishly fallen for his old arrogant ways and had to suffer the consequences of her actions, and this had made him so enthusiastic for the rest of the afternoon that if Trudy hadn’t known what Pete had just done, she’d have probably thought he’d been taking drugs. But it wasn’t just his portion of the call that had made him so upbeat. By her description of events, Pete got the feeling that Peggy was truly in love, and he was perked up every time he thought about that.

But something was still bothering him, and he just wasn’t able to figure out what. He was trying hard to find out what it possibly could be, yet nothing was coming to him. To avoid getting too frustrated and waking up grumpy, he looked at the still body occupying the same bed as his, which helped him forget about his grievances, closed his eyes, and was soon in a deep sleep again.

\----------

“Who’ll knock?”

“I’ll knock.”

“But I want to knock.”

Don knew when Peggy had him beaten.

“Fine. You can knock.”

Peggy gently knocked on the door, but no response came from inside.

“That was pathetic; you have to knock like this.” Don knocked on the door so loudly Peggy was worried for the welfare of it.

Someone or something rumbled in the room, and reverberation could be heard coming from behind the closed door. Don knocked again, just as hard. Finally, someone on the other side of the door spoke.

“Ok, I’m coming. Jesus, someone wants to see me badly, I thought the door was gonna fall down!”

The vibration of footsteps drew nearer and nearer to Don and Peggy, until they stopped. The door swung open very fast, causing both of them to jump.

When they both got hold of their senses again, instead of seeing the door in front of them, all they could see was Stan snickering.

“If you’re gonna knock like that, I think it’s my right to open the door like that. Good to see ya boss,” he said, the final sentence sounding like a private talking to his sergeant who had just returned to address the men.

“If I really was your boss I’d be firing you on the spot for what you just did to my poor heart,” Don replied while grinning. “How’s the lucky man?”

“The unlucky man, more like, is feeling great and is really glad to see his acquaintance back in one piece.”

Peggy butted in to the men’s exchange.

“Think you’ll find I’m actually the unlucky woman, given the fact I’m dating a guy who doesn’t know what a shaver is.”

“You’ll need much more than a shaver to get that thing off his face, might have to get the lawnmower out,” Don said, continuing to grin with delight at how well the young duo seemed to bond with each other.

Peggy & Stan howled with laughter at this remark.

“Don, please come in and continue to entertain me with your wit,” Stan replied after he had finished cracking up at Don’s joke, which took longer than several seconds.

“What about me?”

“Oh yeah, my girlfriend. You can come in too.” And all three of them laughed again.

Peggy closed the bruised door behind her, and Stan changed into serious talk mode, if that was even possible for Stan.

“So, Don. Is there anything you want to tell me about your trip? I’m sure there’s a lot of anecdotes to be had, but please, spare me the details, it’s likely you’ve already had to give a detailed account to Peggy the detective here.”

Don smiled at him, and simply stated “I went on a trip that changed my life but at the same time kept it the same.”

Stan looked at him, puzzled at his remark. “It’s too late for my arty brain to consider paradoxes, so I’ll just pretend I know what you’re talking about.”

Don continued on. “You’ll figure it out soon enough.”

“How long is soon enough?”

“Oh, not very long, I think. It will come to you though.”

Peggy chose now as her moment to discuss the situation in brief. She made eye contact with Stan and opened her mouth to speak.

“Don won’t be coming back to work until he has a permanent place of residence and has spent some time with his children. Until then, no-one at McCann is to know of his return. He still needs some space to breathe without having his employer to worry about.”

“I wish I didn’t have an employer to worry about. But seriously, I completely get where you’re coming from.” Turning to Don, he asked. “You don’t even have a place to live, then?”

“I’m afraid not. I sold my apartment and never actually bought a new place before I left. Not the greatest move in hindsight.”

“Well, I’ll keep you informed if I see any luxury condos for sale.”

“I don’t want luxury. I just want a place where I can commute into work and have the kids round from time to time.

Don was the last person on earth Stan expected to talk about frugality, and was rather taken aback by what he his ears had just perceived.

“Those words don’t sound like the words of a man who wants to return to working in the advertising business.”

“I do want to return. I still have a lot to offer to my employer. Just not now.”

Both men were distracted by a strange noise coming from inside the room. When they looked in the direction of the noise, they were both amused to see the source of their distraction: Peggy yawning.

“It’s late, Peggy, I recommend getting some rest. I really should be getting some shut eye too,” Don remarked upon seeing this spectacle.

“I agree wholeheartedly, I think I might end up dozing off soon. Stan & I both stayed up late last night as well. I’m gonna unpack and get ready for bed.”

“Stan, you should do the same. I know you art boys don’t actually do any real work, but you still need to keep up the professionality. I don’t want to be the reason for you getting fired. It was a pleasure to see both of you, individually and together.” Don turned so his back was facing the bed.

He walked towards the door, hands making contact with the handle, but he rotated his body to look back so he had Stan in the centre of his vision.

“Treat her well, Stan, or I may just have to call you in for a private meeting sometime when I return.”

With that final warning shot, Don left the room. But as he returned to his own resting point for the night, something fearful was creeping under his skin, a fear that part of his emotional connection to the two of them was being slowly cut off, without any reason why.

“Peggy, I hope I never have to be called in for a private meeting with Don. I have been good to you so far, right?”

“You’ve been great, Stan. But if I were you, I’d heed his advice and stick to it. Don cares about us two much more than you could ever know,” Peggy remarked.

“Can we nickname him Uncle Don?” Stan asked sarcastically.

“You don’t see him like that already?”

“Oh, I do. I just wanted the Peggy seal of approval.”

“Approved.”

“Permission to come into bed with you tonight?”

“Denied.”

“I love it when you play hard to get.”

A few minutes later, they were in bed, telling each other their opinions on Don’s behaviour.

“I told you he’d be alright; he just needs some more time to himself. They’ll accept him back at McCann with open arms, he’s a winner.”

“I’m sceptical about that. We’d only just switched over to McCann and he leaves them for so long,” Peggy replied, not confident that telling Stan about what Ted had said to her earlier would be a good idea at this time.

“I’ll vouch for him for 10 hours straight in front of every executive in the firm if I have to. Surely Roger will get him back in somehow?”

“From what I’ve heard, Roger is half retired and has very little influence at the top level.”

“Shit…you’ll defend him, right?”

“If push comes to shove, I certainly will. You saw me confront that woman in the boardroom meeting. I can be pretty fierce when I want to be.”

“Are you fierce now or do I need to enrage you?”

“Enrage me.”

\----------

In Room 187, Don was oblivious to the discussion going on down the hallway. He was busier thinking about the plans he had made for the morning that he was determined to carry out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No bonus points if you got the reference (which was purely an accident I didn't even know) to another great Drama Elisabeth Moss is in.


	8. The Real Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first step is taken.

** Chapter 8 **

** The Real Thing **

The clock sitting on the bedside table showed the man currently residing in the bed that the time was 5 o’clock in the morning, and therefore, it was a full three hours before he wanted to get up. But there was an explanation for this man’s premature waking.

A difficult and complex dream was the main cause, and as the man kept his eyes open, trying to recall the content of it, visions of certain parts played in his head, but he was certain that one major part was missing. He pushed his brain even harder, but to no avail. The key part was lost, gone forever, and wouldn’t be coming back. Without an engine, a car is useless, and the man had lost the engine of his dream.

All he could remember was that he was walking down a very long train tunnel in the dead of night, with the end nowhere in sight. A woman’s voice behind him kept repeating “That’s not true, that’s not true” over and over, and every time she said it, he felt a painful prick in his heart. Eventually, he saw a minute speck of light in front of him, but it was way off in the far distance. But the next part was non-existent. From that point, his memory shifted forward to the ending of the dream. He was present at a wedding reception, but he didn’t know who had just been joined in holy matrimony. The reception was in a large tent, but some indescribable urge had beckoned him to walk out of the tent in the direction of the woods nearby. Yet, no matter how fast he tried to run, the woods were getting further and further away from him; the trees were slipping away, and he couldn’t catch up. Desperately wanting to see what lied within the trees, he broke into a full on sprint, tripped over a root, and was about to feel the painful impact of falling flat on his face when he had woken up into reality again.

What was it that had guided him to the woods that was so important to him that he was so driven to reach the edge of the trees? Whatever it was, he didn’t have the time to think about it now.

\----------

Don opened his eyes, without bothering to check the time on the clock before he ventured into the bathroom. Not wanting to be running late for the day, he rapidly brushed his teeth, took a quick shower (Even though it was the first one he’d taken for weeks), and put some casual clothes on. Peering through his bag, he was unable to find a suit in the bundled up mess of clothing within, which was another reason why he wasn’t interested in returning to working life just yet. Regardless, he had more urgent matters to attend to than buying suits. He took his room key from the bedside table and opened the door that separated himself from the hallway.

\----------

“Are you serious?”

“Very serious. I think he’s got something hidden up his sleeve that is going to blow every other advert that’s currently on air straight out of the water. I got that general mood from him yesterday, the one where he’s really found a winner but doesn’t want to share it with others.”

A sound outside stopped this speech dead in its tracks. Someone was knocking on the door.

“Probably room service or something, I’ll get it,” Peggy said, with a hint of irritation.

But it wasn’t a member of staff that greeted her when she flung open the door. It was Don.

“Don! How brilliant to see you on this fine morning,” she said awkwardly.

“Don’s eyes focused on the window at the back of the room. “Doesn’t look like a fine morning to me,” he said gloomily.

“No, I mean it’s a fine morning because you’re here,” Peggy replied.

“Oh.” An awkward silence followed. “Good day to you, Stan.”

“How are ya today, Don?” Stan replied.

“Hopeful, how are you doing?”

“Great….really great. Last day of work before the weekend, and I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be the best one I’ve had in a while,” he said, moving his eyes from Don to Peggy during the pause in the sentence and smirking.

“Enjoy it,” Don told him, with a very slight hint of envy in his voice that Stan failed to detect. Don went on. “You hungry? I need to go soon, but I can order breakfast for you two before I leave? I’ll pay.”

“You’re going so early? Why?” Stan’s curiosity was getting the better of him. To him, not knowing him very well as a friend, Don was still an enigma waiting to be decoded. Not even Peggy had fully cracked the code either.

“I’ve got many places to go, people to see.” But he didn’t. All had planned for today was to pay his kids a visit, but for reasons unknown to him, he didn’t want to be in the Roosevelt for much longer. “Now do you want me to order a breakfast up here or not?”

“Ahh why not. As it’s a Friday, I think I’ll have a full breakfast, eggs, bacon, sausage, the lot. What about you Peggy?”

“I’ll have anything.”

“Full breakfast for her too, Don,” and he grinned at the fact that he was ordering his girlfriend a meal she wouldn’t be able to finish just so he could eat more. “Wait, you did say you were paying, right?”

“Indeed I did.”

“Definitely a Full breakfast for her then. Thanks Don.”

“There is no word that would express how joyful I am feeling about your return, Don. Good luck today. I’m sure your kids will love the surprise when you turn up,” Peggy said, gazing into his eyes, her face beaming with happiness at his return.

“That’s very kind Peggy. I’ll call you sometime today. Just remember, you saved me, and will always have my gratitude for that.”

“Glad I did,” she replied. And with that, Donald Draper left his best friend alone with her partner, and checked out of the hotel for the day, not before ordering three Full breakfasts, two to be sent up to Room 194, and one for himself. Before his departure, he sat in the corner of the dining area; head buried into the New York Times, with no-one to keep him company but his tangled up thoughts.

\----------

The Campbell’s walked out of their apartment as a family, which was a first since they had moved to Wichita. Trudy looked as radiant as she had done when they’d boarded the plane to their new place of residence, and Pete was looking similarly attractive in his professional attire, which he was wearing as he had an extremely brief introductory meeting with fellow Learjet employees on his schedule. But he had the whole morning and lunchtime to spend with his wife and child, which reassured him that the meeting would go great.

“You’ll do great, sweetie. Just pretend you’re talking to a long-lost friend and they’ll get on great with you,” Trudy said as they walked into Oak Park, situated by the side of one of the two rivers that flowed through the center of the city.

“Oh, I’m not at all apprehensive about that, I’m really looking forward to meeting my new workmates. There’s just something bugging me and not being able to pinpoint what that something is has me even more bothered,” Pete replied.

Trudy put on her typical ‘face of concern’. “What on earth could it be that’s bothering you? You’re with your family that you adore, you’re keeping in touch with friends in New York, and you seem to be keen to start your new job, what’s wrong?”

Trudy, unbeknownst to her, had just greatly aided Pete in solving the puzzle, but he hadn’t found the exact answer to it yet.

“I don’t know,” Pete eventually said.

“Please tell me if you find out what it is, as I want to make sure your days in Wichita are as perfect as possible.”

“I love the city too! I mean, we have small parks like this and two rivers pretty much a stone’s throw away. Look, there’s even a bench by the river with enough room for all of us to sit on.”

When all three of them were seated and comfortably watching the river flowing in silence to appreciate the moment, Pete’s mind turned again towards the problem. It wasn’t the city, it wasn’t his family, it certainly wasn’t the living arrangements, and it wasn’t his work.

But there was a big slice in his pie of New York friends that hadn’t yet been eaten.

On his way out of McCann, he had made his inadequate goodbye to Peggy, later greatly improved over the phone. He had said au revoir to Harry Crane, and even managed to give an adios to Ken, his former rival. But he had never been given a chance to talk to Don again. The information Peggy had fed him down the phone yesterday about Don had been glued to him and he couldn’t get it unstuck. Don was back, but not back in business. Ever since that flight to California all those years ago, where Don seemingly disappeared only to make his comeback in the face of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Pete had been mystified by the man. He already had knowledge of his traumatizing upbringing, which he had (shamefully, he admitted now) attempted to use to his advantage. But why California? What was it about the state that made it Don’s number one destination when he wanted an adventure? Pete hadn’t found it that special when he was over there with Ted, but it must have meant something big to Don. And he was interested to know why. He also had a little proposal he wanted to make to Don, as long as his career at Learjet started off smoothly, which prompted him to think about how to make a good impression at the small meeting this afternoon.

Staring at the stray twigs and various other small bits and pieces floating down the river without a care in the world, Pete wondered where their journey downstream would take them and where they would finish their expedition.

\----------

As Don felt the bitter wind flowing through the New York City streets hit his face, he started arguing with himself over his verdict to prioritize Peggy over his children. “I made another awful decision, I should’ve seen the kids first,” one side of his mind, the loathing self-doubtful side was saying to him. “You made the correct choice; Peggy was the one who convinced you to come home. Without her, you wouldn’t be seeing Sally, Bobby, and Gene today,” the kind, loving side said. But therein laid the problem. It was indeed the case that Peggy was the catalyst in the chemical reaction in his brain that resulted in his return to New York, but that was also the dilemma too. He relied on her so much as a friend that he hoped that her new found relationship wouldn’t cause them to drift apart. Yes, he was delighted that she had found what looked like true love, but she was his closest confidant, a light in times of pure darkness. He had sworn to be a more generous man to his friends and family, but he didn’t know if he had either. The second side came back in again. “You heard her when she was alone with you and when Stan was involved, just because she has a boyfriend she loves it doesn’t mean she no longer cares about you.”

“But I’m not the most important person in her life anymore. And I’m not sure if I can handle that.”

“How do you know you’re not the most important person in her life? And so what? Was she the most important person in your life when you were married to Betty and Megan respectively?”

The answer to that question was a lot more demanding for Don to figure out than he wanted it to be, and the negative side of him pounced on this opportunity to strike a blow.

“So you really did want to break your vows, didn’t you? You can’t escape from the past, Dick Whitman.”

“I did break my vows. I admit it. But not with her. It wasn’t like that.”

“Are you really sure about that?”

He was so focused on this argument that he wasn’t keeping track of where he was actually going, and he accidentally ended up walking straight into a sharp-dressed youthful looking man wearing a three piece suit, while on the other hand, he looked the most un-executive like he had been for a long time. At the point of impact, both of them stumbled, but luckily neither fell over.

“Watch where you’re going, ya bum! Some of us are actually employed and have mouths to feed at home!” The businessman bragged to Don as he continued on down the street, looking thoroughly disgusted that a man like this could possibly live in the same city as him.

Don’s unexpected pain had resulted in him losing his stream of consciousness that had caused the collision. In Don’s opinion, that was actually a good twist of fate, as he wasn’t enjoying the direction the stream was flowing in right before his collision.

Attempting to fight a strong current is usually futile though and just results in undergoing great hardship with nothing to show for it in the end.

\----------

Thirty minutes after Don, Peggy & Stan checked out of the Roosevelt and left through exactly the same door that Don had exited by, only, rather than turning left like Don did, they both turned right, and as two rather than as one.

“Another nasty morning today,” Stan commented when he felt the wind for the first time. “Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. What do you normally do for the big day?”

“Oh, I normally have a meal around my mother’s with close relations,” Peggy quietly replied, as if she didn’t want Stan to hear this.

“Sounds lovely, will I get on with Mrs Olson?”

“Unlikely. She doesn’t really like much. Catholic to the core and obeys the word of the Lord to the nearest detail in the Bible. I get this feeling she won’t appreciate you. She certainly didn’t appreciate Abe,” Peggy said as they turned one of many street corners between their current position and the desired destination.

“That’s harsh. How can she already dislike me if I’ve never met her?”

“I’m just being honest with you. She won’t like you, I’m certain about that. I love her very much, but she hasn’t approved of many of my recent actions.”

“I approve of many of them.” Stan smirked at her while saying this.

“Very funny. But, despite my apprehension, I still want you to come for Thanksgiving. Might as well introduce yourself to her sooner rather than later.”

“Probably the best course of action to take. And I do want to meet her before we move on to other things in our relationship.”

“What things?”

“You know…” Stan said, while staring at a couple across the street, each of them holding hands with one child.

“I really don’t,” Peggy replied. Inside, she did know. She just didn’t want to mention it yet.

Stan speculated that it was best to change the subject.

“So do you agree with my view that McCann is extremely centralized and while Don may have the greatest idea since someone put food between two slices of bread, he’s gonna struggle to get said idea approved through the system?”

“I’m can’t tell you. I do like working there, but it’s very big, like you said. I hardly talk to others there either, unless they’re on the same accounts.”

“Because they’re all scared of you.”

“No they aren’t!”

“You strutted in like you owned the place apparently, and then you negotiate your way back onto an account, they know you mean business. And to some, that means you’re a threat.”

“They thought I was a secretary! And besides, I was drunk anyway, and it was Roger who gave me that painting,” Peggy said, defending herself.

“Of course it was Roger, that magnificent guy. He took good care of us, didn’t he?”

“He was the only one who stayed in the old SCP offices while I was waiting to be moved. I don’t think he likes McCann that much, seeing as he’s on that top floor. Everyone there’s so old; Roger almost seems like the pinnacle of youth up there.

Stan laughed. “Roger IS the pinnacle of youth, he’s in his 50s yet he still behaves like he never made it past 25. You have to admire the man.”

“I do, but it appears I have different reasons to you for admiring him.”

“Hey, I’m a man. You’re a woman. We’re meant to disagree occasionally; it would be odd if we didn’t.”

Stan mentioning they were members of different sexes provoked Peggy into recognizing a potential problem that lay ahead.

“Crap, we don’t wanna be seen walking in together, do we? We’re not that far away now.”

“I don’t see why you’re always so worried about us being seen together, honestly! I’m just wondering why we didn’t take a cab when we left the hotel, it’s freezing!”

“Firstly, I’m still not entirely sure how we can break the news to colleagues at McCann. And secondly, because we prefer talking to each other as it makes us forget about the outside world?”

“Considering we’ve only just remembered we shouldn’t be walking in together, you’re right on that one! And OK, you win on the first point for now. You get the cab. I know you don’t like them, but you look like you’re having a tougher time than me. I’ll brave the cold and pay for your fare.”

“Fine, although I’ll pay the fare.”

“But I want to pay.”

“I’ll be fine. I don’t know why we’re arguing about tiny amounts of money anyway.”

“I hate how money does that. If we were paying with anything other than money we would never argue this much about it.”

“Well what would you rather pay the driver with? Coke bottles?”

“You never know, could catch on.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have a Coke bottle, and I’m not one for pioneering new social trends.”

“You’re in advertising, you’re meant to pioneer new trends.”

“Not like this, Stan, and you know that. Right, I’ll hail the next cab and pay for it with MONEY.” She emphasized the last word a lot more than the others.

“I’ll see you at work. I’m just teasing you by the way; I love you more than Harry loves cookies,” Stan said.

“And I love you more than you love me.”

“That’s a whole lotta loving. Oh, there’s a cab right there, hail it.” And he kissed her as hard as his strength could allow him to, which, to Peggy, was more force than she had ever experienced before by a long shot.

“See ya Stan,” Peggy said, smiling at him as she got into the yellow machine.

Stan continued walking, although he gave Peggy a wave as the taxi passed by him. If he could bear the social embarrassment, he would’ve ran down the street just to keep looking, waving, and grinning at her.  At that instant, he realized that this wasn’t just a fling or a relationship based entirely around sex. This was love. For the first time ever, he was experiencing the real thing.

 


	9. The Circle of Life

** Chapter 9  **

** The Circle of Life **

Don, still as a statue, peered into the windows of the Francis residence. It was late morning when he arrived at his destination, but there were no cars to be seen anywhere near the building, which was an abnormality for this house, as Betty, unless out shopping, gossiping, getting her hair done, or at college (a recent addition to the list) was always inside running after the kids or doing the housework. At least, that was Don’s experience when they were married. They had officially been divorced for less than a decade, but to Don it seemed it was millenniums ago when he last returned home from work to a wife and kids waiting for him. Hell, it felt like centuries had passed since he had made that abysmal choice to follow in Roger’s footsteps and marry his secretary. This agonized him even more when he thought about his previous girlfriend to her, Faye Miller. As a psychologist, it was a bit of a cliche to say it, but she really got him. She was great company, sensitive to Don’s whole personality, and a warrior in the bed. In some ways, she reminded him of Peggy, the caring side especially. Those two women shared very little, however understanding Don was one of those few attributes they both had. But Don had never seen Faye again since he put the ring on his 2nd bride-to-be, and like Ted with Peggy, he wasn’t entirely certain she would be happy to see him. So many of his old girlfriends were like that. Megan had leeched a million bucks off him under the pretense that he’d never walk back into her life, and Rachel had died without Don being informed about it. Was he really that bad at relationships with women? He’d had a lot of them, but only a tiny percentage of them still had any positive meaning to him. And some of those relationships that meant something weren’t sexual ones; well, he’d imagined they weren’t until he’d started questioning himself about them.

He was about to walk away from the house and give up on seeing his children for the day when the sound of a car exhaust pipe stopped him in his tracks. It was Henry’s, not Betty’s car, and no-one else was with him. Henry stepped out the car, saw Don standing upright in front of his property, and gave him that grudging respectful look that they reserved for each other.

“What do you want, Don?” Henry said after walking a few meters towards the house, in a fairly friendly manner for him.

“I’d like to see my children, and get on update on how Betty’s doing.”

Henry could tell immediately from the combination of the look on his face and the timbre of his voice that Don knew about Betty’s cancer. “So, you know?”

“Yes. I know,” he said, in an extremely depressing tone as if he was in utter despair. “Sally told me,” he added.

“Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that she did. She’s matured so much Don. She’s pretty much an adult now.”

“She is an adult. She told me everything I needed to know. I’m proud of her.”

“So am I. She’s handling it really well. The boys rely on her to calm them down when they get upset. She’s brilliant at it.”

Don wanted to see his kids so urgently that he had to ask where they were.

“May I just ask where they all are right now?”

“Bobby and Gene are in school and Sally’s with Betty at the doctor. I’m going over there shortly.”

School. Shit. Don had entirely forgotten about his children’s education. The longevity of the trip out West combined with his lack of formal education had united to put the idea of learning out of his head altogether. School didn’t even mean learning to Don anymore. The first thing he remembered when Henry spoke that word was Sally’s old teacher. She was one of the meaningful ones too.

“Do you have any idea when they’ll be back?”

“Bobby and Gene will be home in the afternoon, and Betty and Sally want to go shopping together after the appointment, and that could take a very long time. You seriously aren’t going to wait here for hours, are you?”

He’d waited hours for Peggy in the hotel, so it was only fair that he should do the same for his children. He didn’t believe taking a ride with Henry to the doctor would be the best decision either, principally as it would only make the problematic situation of Betty potentially receiving dreadful news even more arduous for her.

“I will wait for them. I’ve got nothing else to do, after all.”

Betty had made it her mission to rarely mention Don to Henry after the diagnosis, and so he was uninformed about Don’s escapades of recent times. Wanting to have a genuine chat with Don that wasn’t all about his ex-wife, Henry changed the motif of discussion, rather abruptly to Don.

“Finished work for the day already then? Don’t worry, so have I. Unless you count leafleting for the midterms as work.”

“Yeah, I’m…done for the day,” Don said awkwardly, not wanting to tell Henry any more than he needed to. He wanted to look as responsible an adult as possible for the sake of his kids.

“My recent weeks have been fairly disorganized too. Been in so many meetings about the strategy for the senate election. You will be voting, right? November 3rd, but I guess you knew that already.”

Voting. Another aspect of American life Don had utterly discarded. He didn’t even know the midterms were happening, let alone the date.

“I will be. Don’t know who for, I’m sorry to say.” And this was a true statement. Don typically had a good idea of the party he would be voting for, as being in advertising meant keeping an eye on what new laws and regulations politicians would sign off on that affected clients, but he hadn’t kept track of any current events for a while.

“This is my attempt at doing your job, so tell me if I’m doing it badly and not convincing you. But the Republican candidate has an excellent track record, has challenged the leadership of the party on the Vietnam War in the Senate, is the incumbent, and is the only guy who can beat the maverick Conservative, James Buckley. Don’t split the sensible vote by voting Dem.”

“That was actually very good,” Don said calmly after considering Henry’s pitch. “You’ve got a mixture of confident truths, combined with the idea that you’ve got to have this product; no other product delivers the same results as this one. It’s a mixture that works wonders when done correctly.”

“Thanks for the commendation. But from the very little I know about your work, I’d be a lot more confident in our victory if you were running the ad campaign.”

Don wasn’t ready for a compliment like that from Henry, but he still responded with a negative point. He was falling into that mood again.

“We somehow blew Nixon’s lead back in ’60. Politics isn’t my forte.”

“Still better than the bunch of amateurs running the show right now,” Henry groaned. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re acceptable, but we just can’t think of an ad that will be remembered for years to come.”

“And what makes you think I can create an ad that’s better in such a short amount of time?”

“I’m not sure. But you could probably come up with something harder hitting than what we’re currently running with.”

“I may think about it this weekend. Don’t count on that though. Hey, you really should go and see Betty, she’ll be wondering where you are.”

Henry glanced at his watch. “You’re right. I’m only here to pick up some documents and some posters. You gonna wait here then? Weather’s picked up since the early hours but it’s still pretty cold?”

“Yeah, I am. And I don’t mind the weather.”

“I’ll try to get back with Bobby and Gene as quick as I can before Betty and Sally arrive. Betty could be very distressed after this appointment, and if so, It’s for the best if you avoid talking to her.”

Deeply disappointed that it was growing likelier he wouldn’t see Sally today, Don simply replied “Thanks, Henry. Not a good idea to not stress Betty out even more, like you said. But I do want to see Sally soon.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Don.” And he unlocked his front door and disappeared into the house, leaving Don to sit on the porch all alone.

Peggy left the conference room with her head held high. The meeting on the Butler strategy had been a highly worthwhile one; her taglines were well received by fellow copywriters, and the overall feel for the direction of the advert, thanks to Stan’s team of talented artists, was coming together nicely. Everyone felt prepared to present the campaign to the executives at Butler, who were coming in late next week, although an agreement hadn’t been reached yet on who would make the presentation. Peggy was aiming to be one of those select few who would have the honor of showcasing the work, and she told this to Stan as the congregation left the room, talking to each other as if they were nothing more than fellow employees.

“I say go for it, they loved you in the meeting back there. Being part of the team that manages to sell the ad to Butler will certainly give you the kick-start you want here.”

“I have a hunch they won’t pick me though. I’m a woman, and I’ve only just started, it wouldn’t exactly look fair to others, would it?

“This game isn’t fair, Peggy. I just choose to not to play it, I’m happy where I am.”

“True, but if you don’t take part, you can’t win the jackpot.”

“And what is the jackpot, presenting Coke?”

Reaching the junction where they had to go separate ways, she gave him a quick smirk.

“Have a good weekend, Stan.”

“You too.”

Because of the way McCann was set up, Stan had to take a different elevator to Peggy to return to work quicker. While their offices were on the same floor, they were on opposite sides of the building; Stan’s was on the West side, Peggy’s on the East. Therefore, Peggy turned right at the junction and advanced into the vertically moving box that whisked her around the gigantic maze that was McCann Erickson.

She was daydreaming about spending her first weekend together with Stan when she heard a male voice originating from straight behind her.

“It’s Peggy, right?”

She turned around to discover who had uttered these words, and was startled to discover that they had been spoken by none other than Jim Hobart, who was standing at the back of the elevator looking at her and smiling.

“Yes, Mr Hobart.”

“Hey, call me Jim. Just had the Butler meeting, if the executive schedules are correct?”

“Yeah. It went well. We’re practically ready to present, well I think we are.” Trying to impress him, she hastily added “My taglines are being used for the ad.”

Jim’s smile widened. “So it’s true, you really are as gifted as I hear. I’m glad I got something out of this merger.” Wanting to keep her happy, he didn’t bring up Don or Ted’s imminent mentoring role. But he was seriously considering his judgement on that later point; did she really need a mentor when she had made such an impressive start to her fledgling McCann career?

“I think you’ll be getting more out of the merger than you think,” Peggy hinted.

“We shall see. In fact, I’ve just come up with an idea that will help you turn those words into a reality.”

Peggy was intrigued. “Tell me more,” she demanded.

“So the Butler presentation is late next week, I’m assuming that means the presentation team hasn’t been selected yet?”

Peggy’s heart began to beat ever so slightly faster. “Not yet.”

“That’s great news. Because I want you to be part of that team. Just to give you some experience at presenting to big clients.”

Even faster. “I did a lot of presentations for my old employers. I won the BurgerChef account practically by myself.” She was desperate to add “Ask Don” to the end of that sentence, but knew she couldn’t.

“For a woman so young, you talk like you’re a senior partner. I like that. But back to my offer. I’m gonna pull some strings and get you on that team making the presentation to Butler at any cost, OK?”

Under control now. “Wow. I’m really grateful for this opportunity, Jim.”

“It’s nothing. People who are extremely determined get what they deserve. It appears you’re one of them. Succeed at this and who knows what you could achieve?”

The elevator door opened, revealing Peggy’s floor beyond its doors. “Well, this is my floor where most of the hard work takes place. It was nice meeting you, Jim.”

She walked out. “I’ve put a lot of faith in you, Peggy. Please, don’t make me lose my religion. See you around.”

The elevator doors slammed shut, and Jim was gone.

Peggy made the trek back to her office, bottling up inside her sheer amazement at what had just occurred so as not to arouse suspicion. Entering the room of dreams, she closed the door and jumped high into the air, letting her emotions fly out of her heart, body and mind.

\---------------

Cold, isolated, and with nothing to do for an extended period of time, Don set his feet in motion only a few minutes after Henry started up his car. He couldn’t defeat the urge to go exploring for a second time in two days, and wasn’t ready to put up a fight against it in his current frame of mind. A long walk would be good for his fitness anyway, he advised himself as he left the front porch to follow the sidewalk, no matter where it took him. The array of upper-class houses on his left that he observed as he continued down the sidewalk notified him that the first step to getting back into his working life would involve purchasing some sort of residence for himself. He didn’t know what kind of place he was looking for though. The Draper family home was nice and suburban, but as his children weren’t living with him permanently, not for the moment anyway, a house was at the bottom of his preferred type list. Luxury apartments just reminded him of his disastrous second marriage and he wasn’t sure he wanted to live like “that” again for plenty of time to come. The smaller bachelor pad, where he had seduced his old secretary Allison and spent quality time with Faye at, was most likely his favorite of the three, but that style didn’t seem to fit with him anymore either. He’d have to take a look at what was available and on the market before he made any decisions about what to buy. His only criterion was that it had to be in Manhattan, so much so did he still have love for the feel of city life. The spiritual retreat had done its work, and helped him see life through a brand new set of eyes, but he was still an urban guy at heart.

Sadly, the end of the working week was imminent, and despite already starting the debate about his favorite type of home, he wasn’t up for seeing estate agents anytime soon. He’d stay in the Roosevelt for the weekend, maybe give Roger a call. Roger was definitely his closest male friend, as they had been through hell and high water together, including a near death experience for Roger back in 1960. He’d not given Roger a call when he was in Cali because Roger wasn’t a man to have a confidential chat with, so blunt and to the point he was with words. He was more of a friend who you had fun with, and you didn’t spoil the mood of the friendship by delving too deep into personal hopes and fears. Roger was also mostly straight-talking and told it how he saw it, and Don had an admiration for that, although he had done the opposite of ‘straight-talking’ when trying to convince the man that he had hired him for Sterling & Cooper while drunk, and so didn’t recall appointing him. Still, taking that one chance had led to financial stability and a complete restart in life; well that was what he thought at the time.

About an hour after beginning his worthwhile walk, he had almost gone full circle and ended up back where he started at Henry’s house when something distracted him from the concrete path.

A loud car engine tried to start up, wheezed for a moment, and went quiet as a bat again. It tried again, and it failed again. For the third time, the engine tried to splutter into life, but to no avail. Don turned his head to look at the culprit in question. The vehicle was a stylish Buick muscle, not unlike the one the mechanic that picked up Don back in California drove, but with a little bit more swagger and polish, kind of like the cars Don used to tender to as a young adult. The owner had kept the bodywork in tiptop condition, but the same couldn’t be said for the inside of the car, it appeared. The engine was still playing up when Don reached the driveway.

As he still had a huge amount of time left to burn, Don walked up the drive, hoping he could do a good deed for the day and help this stranger out with their car.

The person sitting in the driver’s seat was the complete opposite of the California mechanic. Blonde, female, beautiful, and youngish, about 30-35 in Donald Draper’s quick estimation guide to the age of women, he watched her face grow redder and redder to the point of bursting as the car refused to start.

Knocking on the car door, Don pointed towards the bonnet. The woman interpreted the message correctly and let her window down.

“You need some help? I used to work on cars like these; I can get it started for you in no time.”

The woman carefully analysed Don from head to knees, silently impressed by the attractiveness of her potential guardian angel, but she didn’t show it in verbal or body language just yet. Her facial complexion was still bright red.

“God, thank you very much, I’ve got so many things to do today! I was about to go inside and call a repairman, but if you think you know what the problem is, go ahead.”

Don walked around to the front of the car, opened the bonnet, and started tampering with some of the cables within.

“Just so you know I don’t want to be paid for this, its child’s play to me.”

And indeed it was. Within a minute the engine roared into life like the cheer at Yankee Stadium when NY scored a home run.

“You really got it to work, I’m so ever thankful! How can I repay you for this?”

“I don’t want anything. I do appreciate the offer though.”

“I wouldn’t feel right if you just left without me giving you anything in return. You’ve saved me a lot of time and a lot of money. Just gimme a moment.”

She turned to the backseat of the car, picked up her handbag, and then turned towards the passenger side so she was hunching, her back facing Don, blocking his view of what she was doing.

After scribbling something down with a pen, she turned back, handed Don a small piece of paper, and said “There’s your payment.” Before Don could reply to reject this “payment” she had already reversed out the driveway, and seconds later she was speeding away down the road, nearly out of sight of Don’s vision.

A collection of numbers, periodically separated by dashes was all that prevented the note from being blank.

“You did what?”

“I’m as astonished as you are.”

“How?”

“Complete luck. I think.”

Peggy was beginning to form a belief that the “chance” meeting with Jim Hobart wasn’t, as she originally thought, entirely down to good fortune. Something else was in play here, and Stan thought this was a likely explanation as well.

“I’m not so sure Peggy. Like I said this morning, others in your department are scared about your potential.”

“What are you saying, that someone got Jim to put me on this so I would fail and”

“You? Failing? No chance. Peggy Olson and failure don’t go together. And anyway, you’re looking at it through a pessimistic lens again. I think Jim just wants to give you a chance to shine and prove your ability.”

“Typical Stan, always correcting my mistakes and being right. I do need to take this opportunity and grab it with both hands.”

“Doing anything this weekend?”

Peggy was unsure what Stan was getting at by changing the subject matter so suddenly, but played along with it anyway.

“No. Why?”

“If you’re not busy, do you wanna come round my apartment? You can kill two birds with stone; you can spend some time with me and I’ll help you prepare for the Butler pitch.”

“Will you really do that?”

“Sure, I did say I would support your career, didn’t I?”

If Stan wasn’t down in the other end of the building, she could’ve kissed him right there and then.

“And you’re keeping your word. I’ll come, I’ll be round yours tonight; I think I’ll be working late on Coke ideas.”

“Coke’s getting in motion?” Stan asked. “Took them long enough.”

“Only a rumor, but they’re ready for us to get the ball rolling and present them something workable. Still won’t be ready for a while.”

“Peggy, presenting Butler would be a real coup for you, but getting on to Coke will be nigh on impossible.”

“And people thought a secretary reaching director, OK temporary I admit, was impossible.”

Stan had a knack for knowing when ambitious Peggy was morphing into delusional Peggy, this was one of those moments. While it was Peggy, Stan saw this as a step too far for her right now, as juggling too many things at once would negatively impact her capability to make a great pitch to Butler

 “Oh God, don’t tell me Peggy Olson is going for Coke. It’s a nice thought, but you’ve already got a lot of work on your hands.”

“Always worth trying though.”

“Fair enough. Might as well give it a go if you have the time. Speaking of time, I’ve got some more artwork to look at that’s on a tight schedule. I’ll see you tonight. I love you.”

“I love you.”

Peggy really wanted to get on Coke. It was her dream account. But Stan was, in all probability, speaking the truth. It would take a miracle to even be in the running for it.


End file.
